


Not so little problem

by katychan666



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, De-Aged Alec, Fluff, Funny, M/M, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-20 13:32:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11921931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katychan666/pseuds/katychan666
Summary: On a mission, Alec is hit with a spell that turns him into an 8 year old. While Magnus is trying to figure out how to break the spell and bring his Alexander back, others struggle with babysitting the little boy, who turns out to not be such a little problem to handle.





	1. Chapter 1

When Magnus came back home, he was very surprised with what he found. The day started out like any other one; he woke up with Alec by his side, then Alec went off to fight some demons, while he went to help out a client, like usually. It was their daily routine after Alec moved in with him and after the long day that he had with a particular vampire, Magnus was more than happy to return back to his little sanctuary, curl up next to Alec and just forget about all the worries in the world. That was what usually happened, but not that day, because he found something that he never expected to see in his apartment; a child. There was a child waiting for him in the living room and Magnus froze in the very place that he stood as he portalled himself back, his eyes widening as the child was staring back at him, Magnus clearing his throat, looking around frantically, confused when Alec was nowhere to be seen.

 

The child, a boy couldn’t be more than eight or nine years old and Magnus had no idea how he got inside of his apartment. At first he considered that the child might be a demon or something like that, but when he took a second look at him, he noticed that he resembled someone that he actually knew. The boy had dark, raven hair and hazel eyes, just like the ones Alec possessed. Not only that, but he was also wearing one of Alec’s oversized sweaters. They already looked too baggy on Alec and were coming down to the boy’s knees as he was standing on his red sofa, the sleeves rolled up, a frown in between his eyebrows familiar enough that Magnus came to conclusion that that probably really was Alec. Still not very sure, Magnus decided to play it cool and he slowly came closer to the frowning boy.

 

“Hello there, little one,” said Magnus as he tried to sound polite and not scare the little one away. “Can I ask you for your name and how you got inside my apartment? I promise I won’t be angry, I just need to know in case anyone is looking for you and-”

 

“It’s me, _Magnus_ ,” said the other and Magnus just let out a gasp when it finally hit him that it really was Alec. “I live with you, remember?” then added the boy and slowly slipped down the couch, walking up to Magnus.

 

“Alexander?” asked Magnus carefully and Alec only nodded, Magnus letting out a hitched breath, still not believing what his eyes saw. “What in the world happened to you? Where are Isabelle and Jace? Weren’t they supposed to be on a mission with you?” he then asked, concerned that something happened and his fear frightened the little boy as well, which seemed kind of strange.

 

“I-I don’t know,” stammered Alec. “They told me to go find you after this happened. Izzy said that you’d be able to help me,” continued the boy, grabbing the corner of his oversized sweater and started playing with it out of nervousness. He kept biting down onto his lower lip, fearing of the worst. He didn’t know how long it had been since Izzy and Jace told him that they would take care of the rest of the demons there, but to him it seemed that a lot of time had passed already. He was concerned a lot and even though he was technically still an adult in a child’s body, he started noticing that his emotional state started changing as time passed; as if he was turning really into a child. “They stayed with the demons, but I haven’t heard from them ever since. D-do you think that something happened to them?”

 

As Alec explained all of that, the realisation that Alec really was turned into a child by some kind of a magic slowly started sinking in and he just nodded, not really knowing what to say. However, when he noticed that Alec was practically on the verge of tears because of worrying, he decided to stop holding back and he just placed a hand on top of the boy’s head. “Your brother and sister are fine, of that I am sure. They are the best soldiers at the Institute,” he said and watched how Alec got really red into the face.

 

Alec frowned when Magnus called Izzy and Jace to be the best and he pouted. Wasn’t he the best soldier? Magnus had always told him that _he_ was the bravest, strongest and the most loyal Shadowhunter that he knew! Was all of that a lie?! “They are the best soldiers?” asked Alec with a small voice and turned around, huffing when he heard a chuckle coming from Magnus.

 

“What’s with the pout, little man?” asked Magnus teasingly and earned a well deserved glare from the younger one, who felt betrayed. He felt his heart literally dropping to the pit of his stomach when Magnus called him like that. “Jealous that I called them the strongest ones out there?” teased Magnus then and Alec just shook his head.

 

“N-no, of course not,” stated the boy stubbornly and Magnus just kept holding back his laughter and Alec kept walking up and down the room, looking adorable as ever, even though he was angry with him. “And don’t call me like that,” said the hunter and rolled his eyes. “I’m _not_ a child.”

 

“Well-”

 

“Don’t!” said Alec angrily, his face burning with anger, so Magnus just looked down, who was still smiling and that annoyed the boy more than ever. “Anyway, something happened on the mission,” said Alec then, who wanted to get down to business and looked down.

 

“Yeah, trust me, I’ve noticed,” said Magnus with a chuckle, finding it somehow strange that Alec, even as a little boy, was so focused on the missions. But then again, it _was_ Alec, so Magnus knew that it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The teasing tone in his voice made Alec’s cheeks redden and Magnus decided not to tease the younger any further. “So, mind sharing with me what happened on that mission?” asked Magnus and then sat down onto the couch, Alec slowly coming to him, nodding.

 

“I was on a mission with Jace and Izzy,” started Alec and Magnus only nodded. “And there was this…big, bad demon,” explained the boy further on, Magnus’ eyes widening and he almost burst into loud laughter; Alec’s current young age definitely showing through his usual seriousness. In a way, Magnus always wanted to know how Alec was as a child and now he was able to experience it first hand. As Alec wanted to show how big the demon was, he got onto tip toes and extended out his arms, drawing a _big_ circle around him. “It was this big,” said Alec and Magnus hummed in amusement.

 

“Really?” asked Magnus, still not sure if he should be talking to Alec as an adult to adult, or as if he was speaking with a child. The whole scene was trippy and he tried to focus on the important details of Alec’s story; he needed to know exactly what kind of demon he was dealing with if he wanted to help Alec out and turn him back to his usual self. “ _That_ big?” asked Magnus playfully, hoping that he wasn’t pushing it too much, but when he saw the excitement in Alec’s eyes, he knew that he was dealing with a child after all, in a way.

 

“Yes, this big!” said the boy, happily nodding and he then climbed up onto the couch, sitting next to Magnus. “You know who it was that took care of it?” asked Alec and a smug smile was coming up his lips and even though Magnus knew that it was probably Alec, he just shook his head and shrugged.

 

“No idea,” said Magnus with a smirk. “Why don’t you tell me?”

 

“It was me!” stated Alec proudly. “I aimed the arrow and shot the monster. And then, and then,” started Alec, getting onto his legs, standing up on the couch. “It went boom and there was flame and fire and it was so cool,” explained Alec and Magnus just kept nodding and smiling along.

 

For the warlock, it was kind of adorable to see Alec being so into the story as he was talking about the mission. Usually, Alec rarely spoke about his missions and it was a rare sight to see him brag about himself. However, now, Alec didn’t have that filter as most adults did, so he just kept on and on explaining how he saved the day, the smile on Magnus’ face growing with each passing second. In the end he came to a conclusion; as a child, Alec was just as precious as he was as an adult, just in a different way.

 

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me one bit. I know that you’re always the strongest one out there,” said Magnus and Alec’s face brightened at the compliment. As much as Magnus enjoyed the conversation and seeing little Alec so excited, he knew that he needed to get serious about the matter. It wouldn’t be exactly cute and adorable if Alec happened to be stuck like this for good. “Do you know what happened later on? After the big, bad demon was gone?”

 

“Yes,” said Alec and the boy’s eyes then filled with fear. “A scary man with red eyes came and he was a demon too,” said the boy and shuddered when the remembered the man’s face. “I couldn’t make him disappear and he hit me. He wanted to attack Izzy with some kind of a weird spell, but I jumped in front of her and… became like this,” said Alec. “Little, small, weak and useless,” he then added, Magnus narrowing his eyes and sighed. That sounded a lot more like Alec that he knew and he chewed on his lower lip, still not exactly sure what he was dealing with. “And then I came here, so that I wouldn’t get in a way of the mission. Izzy and Jace stayed there with the demons.”

 

“I see,” said Magnus and smiled, placing a hand back on top of the boy’s head and Alec just bowed his head down, feeling guilty. In his opinion, it was his fault that something went wrong with the mission. He was careless, he wasn’t thinking. He grabbed the sweater again and started tugging onto it, trying to hold back the tears, his throat burning and Magnus panicked when he saw that Alec was on the verge of tears. He considered himself to be good with kids, but not crying ones. “It’s not your fault, Alexander,” said Magnus softly and ruffled the boy’s messy hair. Alec looked up and his big, tear-filled eyes found Magnus’. “I’m quite positive that they were able to win against those mean demons.”

 

“Really?” asked Alec and let the tears fall, Magnus quickly scooping the boy up into his lap and wiped away those tears with his magic, the magic tickling against Alec’s skin, making the little boy giggle at the process. Magnus grinned, never before he had heard Alec actually _giggle_ and at the same time, he was happy that he was able to calm him down.

 

“I bet they’re on their way here as we speak,” said Magnus and those words gave Alec hope. However, his good mood disappeared soon after that and he gently tugged onto the sleeve of Magnus’ shirt and Magnus looked down.

 

“Will you able to help me? Turn me back?” asked Alec, his eyes filled with fear.

 

Magnus froze in place and gave Alec an uncertain look; he didn’t know. Magnus had dealt with quite a lot of de-aging spells in his life before, but this time it was different. Usually, when someone was hit that kind of a spell, they would completely turn into a child and forget everything that happened in their adult life. But, with Alexander, it was different. Alec had memories of his adult life and sometimes, it seemed that the grown up version of Alec was still somewhere in there. It was strange, nothing like Magnus had seen before. It was like two kids of souls were inside of Alec’s body and Magnus didn’t know where to go from there on. Maybe if he asked Catarina-

 

“Magnus?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Magnus slowly and Alec panicked again.

 

“What do you mean?” asked the boy and stiffened up in Magnus’ lap. “Do-do you mean I’ll be stuck like this for good? No, no, no, please I-”

 

“Shh, calm down, Alexander,” said Magnus and sighed. “I’ll be able to, once I learn all of the details. I’ve had to deal with quite a lot of de-aging spells so far, but yours seems a bit more complicated. I’ll ask Catarina to help me out, okay?” asked the warlock and the younger one only slowly nodded, but kept looking down. “And I still don’t know what kind of demon attacked you, so I can’t-”

 

“I don’t know either!” exclaimed Alec and his eyes filled with horror. “I forgot how he looked!”

 

“Hey, hey,” said Magnus softly, but hearing that scared him. Was Alec forgetting things from his adult life? “Don’t fill your little head with useless worries, angel,” said Magnus and gave Alec a reassuring smile. “I’ll just ask Izzy and Jace of what really happened. I’m sure you were in a shock, so of course you can’t remember.”

 

“B-but what if it isn’t shock? What if I’ll forget things? Because some things are already pretty hazy,” stammered Alec and grabbed onto Magnus hand. “What if I forget you?” whispered Alec and squeezed his eyes.

 

Magnus felt a stab at his heart, but quickly shook his head. “That’s impossible,” said Magnus and Alec slowly nodded. “Besides, I’m sure that I and Cat will be able to figure it out by tomorrow morning,” said Magnus then and Alec’s mood brightened after that, his worries fleeing away for the time being. He trusted Magnus, because he knew that the warlock would never lie to him.

 

“Thank you,” said Alec and gently leaned against Magnus, looking down and he realised that he was still sitting in Magnus’ lap. Usually, he would make a fuss about it, but that time, he didn’t mind it. He was much smaller than usual, so sitting in Magnus’ lap made him feel safe and he slowly closed his eyes, yawning at the process when he finally completely relaxed, Magnus cheekily smiling when he saw that Alec was in the process of falling asleep.

 

Magnus then looked towards the clock and realised that it was still pretty early; it was only 9 pm. However, since Alec was already practically asleep, he decided that it was time to get the little one to bed. However, he made sure that he fed the little one a dinner first and after Alec finished eating and was happily playing with Chairman Meow, Magus decided that it was the time to get Alec to sleep.

 

“Now then,” said Magnus and stood up with Alec in his arms. “Let’s get you to bed now,” announced Magnus and Alec’s eyes widened, quickly shaking his head.

 

“No!” whined the boy. “It’s still early!”

 

“It’s past 9 pm. It’s the time that you go to bed, young man,” said Magnus and Alec only rolled his eyes and even though he wanted to say something as a protest, he had to admit it that he was exhausted, which annoyed him. He hated being stuck in a kid’s body and he just huffed as Magnus carried him into the bedroom, knowing that it would be pointless to struggle.

 

“Don’t treat me like a kid,” said Alec and crossed his arms on top of his chest, Magnus just trying not to laugh out loud; it was ridiculous how adorable Alec looked at that moment. “I’m a big boy!” announced Alec and stomped with his feet.

 

“A big boy?” mused Magnus and Alec blushed.

 

“Stop bullying me!” said Alec, defending himself the best way he knew how to and then angrily climbed onto the bed. “I’m a strong Shadowhunter, remember? If you’ll be mean to me again, I will,” he started and got onto his feet, so that he was finally as tall as Magnus. “I will tickle you to death,” threatened him Alec and Magnus burst into loud laughter.

 

“Ah, then I better be careful,” said Magnus and Alec knew that he was just making fun of him, so he just angrily climbed down off the bed and went into bathroom to brush his teeth, mumbling something to himself that Magnus couldn’t really make out what it was. After he was done, he went back into bedroom and got onto the bed, still scowling at Magnus, who appeared to be having the time of his life.

 

“Yes, I am a big boy!” said Alec, still not ready to give up the fight. “I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed all on my own,” he then stated angrily and Magnus’ heart melted when he saw Alec still glaring at him.

 

“Yes, yes,” said Magnus and grinned. “I apologise, it was immature of me to laugh at you earlier,” he said and Alec nodded in agreement.

 

“It’s okay, I forgive you,” said Alec and Magnus smiled. Alec then lied down and suddenly felt really small on the big and spacious bed. “Magnus, aren’t you going to bed too?” he then asked and Magnus slowly shook his head.

 

“Not quite yet, little one,” said Magnus with a smile as he ruffled Alec’s hair. “You go sleep and I’ll try to figure out how to get you to your usual self, okay? You had a rough day and you need some sleep, anyway,” he then added and bit into his lower lip when he saw the troubled expression on the other’s face.

 

“Oh,” said the boy in disappointment and then brought the bed covers up to his face. “Can you at least stay here with me until I fall asleep?” asked Alec with a little voice and Magnus nodded, because he couldn’t really let the boy be all on his own; it was a long day for Alexander.

 

“Of course,” said Magnus and sat down, smiling as Alec slowly closed his eyes, holding onto his hand and the warlock said nothing, but was happy to see that Alec finally relaxed. As the other was slowly falling asleep, Magnus started humming a melody of an old lullaby, which his mother sang to him when he was little and did worked like magic on Alec, as it did on him; Alec fell asleep within minutes. When Magnus was sure that the other was soundly asleep, he went back into the living room and that was when Jace and Isabelle finally decided to show up, to see how their brother was doing.

 

Magnus explained how complicated things were, but he assured both of them that they had nothing to worry about, promising that he would do everything in his power to bring Alec back to his usual self. Fortunately, the two of them were able to give Magnus a better description of the demon that attacked Alec and Magnus quickly brought out all the books that he needed to come up with the solution. Also, he sent Catarina a fire message, telling her everything and that he was in a need of help. While Alec was soundly asleep in the next room, Magnus, Isabelle and Jace started reading all of the old books, trying to find the solution that would help out Alec as soon as it was possible.

 

However, as morning was coming, Magnus was starting to understand that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought, but at the same time, he wouldn’t mind babysitting Alec for the time being; it would give him lots of material to keep teasing him later on, after they would bring him back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jace is struggling with babysitting Alec.

''Alec, what did I say about jumping on the couch?!'' asked Jace, who was slowly having a losing his patience. It's been two weeks since Alec had been turned into a kid and Magnus was really close to figuring out how to get Alec back. However, in the meantime, taking care of little Alec was a pain in the ass. Jace was sure that the other was extra annoying when it was his turn to look after him, as revenge. Because they didn't want others to know what happened to Alec – at his own request – Alec had been hidden from others and was spending the time at Magnus', where he lived anyway. However, when someone asked why Alec wasn't going on missions, they would respond that he was sick. Robert and Maryse had no idea what happened to their son as well; Alec didn't want to lose his position as the Head of the Institute.

 

As the time passed, Alec slowly started forgetting his memories from his adult life. However, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded; he still knew who all of them were. Even though Isabelle and Jace were now older than him, the little boy somehow didn’t seem to mind that. It was as if Alec’s memories of his childhood were rewritten and now he thought that he was the youngest sibling. On the other hand, he still had some memories that he shared with Magnus, but even those were slowly fading away. Jace knew that the warlock must’ve been heartbroken even though he wasn’t really showing it; he was too busy with trying to bring Alec back. However, even if Alec forgot about how he and Magnus were really linked to each other, he was still close to the man as a child. He was attached to him the most and believed that they were best friends. Since Alec was only eight, Magnus didn’t say anything and just went along with it, trying not to worry too much; they would be able to bring him back, everyone was working hard on it and a solution was about to come sooner or later.

 

Jace kind of loved seeing this side of Alec; his carefree, innocent side. As an adult, Alec had many worries on his mind, so in a way, Jace was glad to see Alec being carefree like that. He didn’t really remember when was the last time that he saw Alec laugh like that. However, that would be all good if little Alec wasn’t so annoying when it was just two of them. It seemed like Alec enjoyed tormenting him; he wasn’t like that to any other one. He was even nice to Clary. Well, kind of.

 

“Alec, for the love of God-” tried Jace again, but Alec just stuck out his tongue out and stopped jumping, but he had no intentions of stopping messing around with the blond; he was having far too much fun with it. Besides, he deserved it. He and Clary were always barging in unannounced, so it only seemed fair to the boy that he kept messing around with now his older brother for a bit longer.

 

“Why don’t you make me?” asked Alec and stuck out his tongue out again, making Jace’s blood boil with anger. “Magnus said that I can jump on his couch, so since this is his place, I’ll listen to his rules, not yours,” stated Alec stubbornly and started jumping up and down the couch again. “Your rules suck.”

 

“Look,” started Jace, trying to keep his tempter under control. “You can fall and _hurt_ yourself,” he tried again. “I’m just worried, I don’t want you to hurt yourself, understand?” he asked and as a response, Alec only started jumping higher and higher, his loud giggling scaring poor Chairman Meow, who was sleeping in the corner of the room. “Also, Magnus will kill me if you get hurt on my watch,” he then added, talking to himself, but Alec heard him.

 

“I’m not listening to you,” said Alec and stopped jumping for the split second, so that he could grab a pillow which was resting on the couch and looked over at Jace, who was now rolling his eyes. “Here, catch!” said Alec playfully, trying to get Jace to play with him. However, Jace wasn’t really paying attention and Alec threw the pillow quite strong, which ended up hitting Jace right into his head. A loud gasp left Alec’s mouth and even though his intention wasn’t to hit his brother, he started laughing. He placed his palms on top of his mouth, but his entire body was shaking with laughter and he fell down onto his knees, still laughing.

 

“Alec!” said Jace, his face red with anger. “Cut it out!”

 

“Bull’s eye!” said Alec, extended one of his arms into the air and cheered. “A strike for Alec Lightwood. Jace Wayland, you’re on the losing team,” announced the boy then and Jace gritted his teeth when Alec was standing on top of the couch again.

 

“Get down,” hissed Jace. “ _Now._ ”

 

“Or what?”

 

“You’re,” started Jace and stopped talking for a moment or so. “Or you’re grounded.”

 

“You can’t ground me,” said Alec and stuck his tongue out again. “Because you suck,” started Alec again and giggled when Jace gave him an annoyed look.

 

Jace took his phone out and frowned when he saw the time; Izzy should be over by then! She promised to look after Alec that afternoon, since Magnus was out at Catarina’s, but she was still nowhere to be seen. Jace swore if someone wasn’t going to come over in the next few moments, he would have a mental breakdown. He loved Alec, God he did, but that brat wasn’t him. At all. Ugh.

 

“Look, Jace,” said Alec and waggled his eyebrows when Jace turned around. “I’m jumping again. What’re you gonna do about it?” he then added, trying to provoke the older one, who had it enough.

 

“Fine by me, jump all you want!” snapped Jace and rolled his eyes. “But if you fall and get hurt, don’t come crying to me,” he then added and stormed out of the room, stepping into the kitchen and his eyes longingly looked over Magnus’ bar, wishing to have something strong. Jace remembered Alec as a kid and he was never, ever that annoying. Or was he? Back then, Alec was very timid and shy, but then again, when it was just the two of them playing together, Alec could be quite the mischievous kid. But that side of him came only after they were introduced and Jace came to the realisation that it was his fault that Alec was so… annoying. After an experience like that, Jace wondered that he’d ever have kids of his own. They were far to much work and-

 

Jace was awakened from his daydreaming when there a loud thump heard from the living room, followed by a loud yelp and a ‘’Oh no,’’ could be heard. Jace was on his feet immediately and he literally ran into the living room, where he found Alec standing in the middle of a mess. Somehow he managed to knock over Magnus’ coffee table and break everything that was on it. Alec’s heart fell to the pit of his stomach and all of the colour drained from his face, biting his nails as he started thinking about how pissed Magnus would be at him. What if he wouldn’t want to help him anymore and would send him back home?

 

“Now you’ve done it,” said Jace and shook his head. He wanted to pick Alec up, so that he wouldn’t cut himself on the broken pieces of the glass, but his eyes widened in shock when Alec leaned down and started picking up the broken pieces of the glass with his bare hands, cutting himself in the process of course, letting out a small hiss of pain and quickly dropped what he was holding in his hands, only to lean down and start picking the pieces again, ignoring the pain in his bleeding hand. “Alec, leave that. I’ll clean it up, so just come here and let me take care of it.”

 

“No,” said Alec and shook his head. “It’s my fault, I need to take care of it. Magnus will hate me,” added the boy then and his heart fell to the pit of his stomach as he said that. Jace rolled his eyes, knowing how dramatic Alec was as a child and just picked him up, carrying him to the bathroom, where he took care of Alec’s bleeding hand. Luckily the cut wasn’t that deep, so a simple bandage was enough. However, Alec cared for none of that; to him it was heartbreaking that he destroyed Magnus’ things, which were dear to his heart.

 

“Stop pouting,” said Jace to his _parabatai_. Well, Jace wasn’t so sure if Alec was still his _parabatai._ Jace’s _parabatai_ rune was still present, but all of Alec’s runes were gone. However, as strange as it sounded, he could still feel Alec through their bond. Not always, but there were times that Alec was present there, so Jace didn’t know what to make of that. He then shook his head and sighed, looking over at Alec, who looked like a little pile of sadness and Jace just rolled his eyes. “Come on, you know that Magnus won’t hate you,” he said. “Let’s just say that it was me who knocked the coffee table over.”

 

“No!” said Alec in disbelief. “I-I can’t lie to Magnus,” stammered Alec and Jace just nodded; that was a lot like Alec. As a kid Alec was unable to tell a lie, so Jace knew that it wouldn’t work out.

 

“Okay, okay, then we’ll tell him the truth,” said Jace and gave the little one a smile. Alec froze with fear as he looked over at the mess that he made and his lower lip started shaking.

 

“He’ll hate me,” hiccupped Alec.

 

“He won’t hate you, Alec,” said Jace and rolled his eyes. He panicked when he saw tears in Alec’s eyes and he quickly knelt down to the boy, awkwardly holding his shoulder. “Even if he gets mad at you, he-”

 

“He’ll get mad at me?” asked Alec, placing his hands behind his back and let the tears fall. “I-I don’t want Magnus to-to be angry with-with me,” managed to say Alec in between his sobs and Jace just groaned.

 

“Oh for the love of God, Alec,” whispered Jace.

 

Just as Jace was about to lose it, Isabelle stepped inside of the apartment and gave Jace an angry look when she saw that Alec was on the verge of tears. Without saying anything, she picked up the boy and carried him into the kitchen, giving one final nasty look to Jace and the blond one just rolled his eyes when he heard Isabelle soothing Alec. It was weird how overprotective she had gotten over Alec, but then again, he understood her. Alec was now her little brother and just like with Max, who was now much older, she tended to go overboard with protecting him.

 

Isabelle carried Alec into the kitchen and placed him down into a chair and took a closer look at his hand, which seemed to be wounded. Luckily, Jace was at least considerate enough to take care of the bleeding. But what the hell was he doing in the meantime that Alec hurt himself like that? Pissed, Isabelle sighed and then hugged her brother again, who stifled again and returned the girl a hug. Now that Izzy was over, he felt a lot calmer.

 

“What happened, Alec?” asked Isabelle, who was now kneeling down, removing some of the hair from Alec’s forehead and then started wiping the falling tears away with the sleeve of her shirt.

 

“I was playing and I broke Magnus’ things,” said Alec with a small voice, new tears gathering in his eyes as he thought about how angry Magnus was going to be be. “I wanted to clean up and I cut myself,” he then added and Isabelle sighed again and nodded, giving her brother a small smile.

 

“And where was Jace?” asked Izzy, narrowing her eyes.

 

“In the kitchen.”

 

“Typical,” said the girl and shook her head.

 

“It’s not his fault,” said Alec quietly. “I didn’t listen to him, so it’s my fault,” he added. “And Jace said that Magnus will be angry with me. He’ll hate me, won’t he?”

 

“Jace’s an idiot, Magnus could never be angry with you,” said Izzy. “Magnus has magic, remember? He can fix the things you broke with his magic,” she then added and Alec quickly stopped crying.

 

“Oh,” said the boy. “But Jace-”

 

“Jace’s not very smart, is he?” said Isabelle and Alec just shook his head.

 

“He’s a meanie.”

 

In the meantime, Jace listened to their conversation and in the end decided to go on and clean the mess that Alec made. Annoyed with Alec again, he wrinkled his nose as the idea of having kids came up again. “Fuck this, I’m never having kids,” said Jace to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your support, I'm so happy to see that you're enjoying this so far.  
> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well ;)  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

Clary and Alec were currently out in a park. As the red-head was trying to cheer Alec up, the little boy wasn’t having a good time at all. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Jace’s girlfriend, but she was always far too energetic and cheerful for his liking. Even as a child, Alec couldn’t understand why was being in a good mood always so important to her. Plus, she always spoke way too much and Alec didn’t know how Jace could handle her. Then again, the blond was always speaking too much for his liking as well, so maybe they were a match made in heaven after all.

 

They were sitting on the bench, next to a playground and Clary was trying to get Alec to play with the other kids there. Izzy told her that Alec had a lot of fun the other day with her on the playground, so Clary wanted to try out her luck. She liked kids and usually, they liked her back. However, not even as a child, could she make Alec like her. That was kind of… disappointing. But, she wasn’t ready to give up so easily. Clary gently poked Alec’s shoulder and the younger one just scowled at her, making Clary’s smile disappear, but she was still in a good mood. She wasn’t let grumpy Alec ruin her fun.

 

“Why don’t you go play with others?” asked Clary softly and pointed to the playground filled with kids. “I’m sure they’d love to hang out with you. Izzy told me that you were here with her a few days ago and you had fun?” asked the red-head and Alec just rolled his eyes, in a way that reminded her of the grown-up version of him.

 

“No,” said Alec, shaking his head. “I don’t know anyone,” he then stubbornly stated and stiffened when Clary leaned over to him. “I’ll just sit here,” he then added and Clary chuckled, making Alec’s annoyance grow.

 

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun, you’ll see,” said Clary and placed an arm around the boy’s shoulders, but then quickly removed it after the received glare. “If you want, I can go with you and we can play together? Look, the swing is free now, so I’ll push you. Come on,” she said, excited and got onto her legs, Alec giving her unamused look.

 

“Do you always talk so much?” asked Alec bluntly. As a kid, he didn’t have a filter and even though he always wanted to ask her that as an adult, he somehow forced himself to stay quiet.

 

Clary didn’t let Alec’s comment bother her and she just giggled. “I suppose I do, yes,” said Clary awkwardly and pressed her lips together. “I promise to stop talking so much from this point on,” she then said and Alec gave her a look, meaning that he didn’t really believe her. “Look, I know that I’m not as fun as Magnus or Izzy, but,” she said. “Tell me what would you like to do? I’m sure that just sitting here on this bench isn’t quite fun either.”

 

“Sitting here sucks and it’s pretty boring,” replied Alec after he did some thinking. He then looked up at the red-head and started thinking again. He then looked over at the empty swing and had to admit it that it looked pretty tempting. The boy looked up at Clary, who was still waiting for a reply and it the end said: “Maybe we could go check that swing out?”

 

“Sure, why not?” replied Clary happily, glad to see that Alec was finally cooperating.

 

“But you’ll come with me?” asked Alec with a small voice. Swinging sounded fun, but he didn’t want to be on his own. He didn’t really like playing with kids that he didn’t know. “I don’t wanna be alone,” he then added and the red-head was speechless for the first few moments, quickly nodding.

 

“Yes, of course, Alec. I promised to push you on the swing, right?” asked Clary and a small smile brightened the boy’s face. He then hopped off of the bench and slowly took Clary’s hand when the girl offered him a hand.

 

The two of them made their way to the swing and Alec sat onto it, while Clary stepped behind of him and as she promised, pushed him on the swing. For the first few minutes, Alec kept being silent, but he was enjoying himself. He liked the way wind messed with his hair as he was swinging higher and higher, his smile kept growing wider. It didn’t last long until Clary heard Alec’s loud giggles and a smile tugged at her lips as well; mission success.

 

“Having fun, Alec?” asked Clary, even though the answer was more than obvious and he just nodded.

 

“This is so fun,” said Alec, giggling as he held onto the swing tighter. “Higher, Clary, I wanna go higher!” cheered the boy and Clary nodded, pushing Alec a bit higher, but still careful enough not to go overboard.

 

As Alec got tired of the swing, he dragged Clary over to the slides and made her climb onto one of them and then they had a competition of which one was going to be on the ground first. It was a battle that Alec won, of course, cheering happily as Clary stepped next to him and ruffled his hair. For a change, Alec didn’t mind that and his attention was stolen when he saw an ice cream shop right across the street.

 

“Clary, look, ice cream!” said Alec happily and started bouncing up and down. “Can we please go there? Pretty please?” asked the boy politely and after he gave Clary one of her brightest smiles, she couldn’t say no.

 

“Of course we can,” said Clary happily and without even thinking twice, Alec grabbed Clary’s hand, crossing the road safely, happily giggling when he got the ice cream that he wanted. After that, the boy wanted to go back to Magnus’, to show him the ice cream that he got as he wanted to share it with him. So, Clary only nodded and took Alec back to Magnus’, where everyone else was. In her opinion, Alec was a good kid; she didn’t know why Jace complained so much.

 

* * *

 

 

“So you’re saying you haven’t found a solution yet?” asked Isabelle and Magnus pressed his lips together, shaking his head. He had looked through every book that he had thought of and even with the help of Catarina, he wasn’t able to think of anything that would actually help Alec out.

 

“No,” said Magnus and shook his head, worried. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. It would help if you wouldn’t kill off that demon that cursed Alec,” said Magnus and looked over at Jace, who just opened his mouth in disbelief.

 

“So, this is my fault now?” asked Jace angrily. “Well, excuse me, but in the middle of the battle that we were, I couldn’t really think and cherry pick the demon who did this to keep him alive. If you haven’t noticed, the demon almost killed off both of us and-”

 

“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?” asked Magnus annoyed. “You didn’t think. You never _think_.”

 

“It’s not my fault,” hissed Jace. “If you really were an all powerful warlock, like you claim to be, you could’ve found a solution. It’s been two weeks, Magnus, we can’t forever lie and keep telling others that Alec is sick with a flu. Also, I’d love to have my _parabatai_ back, because that brat is going to drive me nuts.”

 

“Boys, cut it out,” said Isabelle and rolled her eyes. “This isn’t going to bring us closer to finding a solution.”

 

“Fine,” said Jace and sat back down.

 

It was in that moment, that there was a knock at the door and Magnus opened the door with his magic. Through it stepped Clary and Alec, who seemed to be in a lot better mood. While the three of them were talking, Clary decided to take Alec out to the park. Before going, Alec complained quite a lot, but in the end decided to go with her anyway. The other three were discussing some boring, adult things, so going out with Clary still sounded better to the boy than to be stuck in the apartment listening to that.

 

“Magnus!” said Alec happily and ran up to warlock, who placed a hand on top of his head and gently ruffled his hair. “Look, Clary bought me an ice cream,” he then proudly added and Jace wrinkled his nose, looking over at Clary.

 

“This was the only way I could make him like me,” joked the red-head and chuckled. “He really wanted it and I really couldn’t say no to that face.”

 

“You bribed him,” said Jace and shook his head, but Clary just shrugged her shoulder and smiled again. She didn’t mind it one bit; Alec was an adorable kid and even though he was mostly a grumpy one, there were simple ways to make him happy and smile.

 

“Wanna try it?” asked Alec and gave his ice cream to Magnus, who just nodded and took a lick of the boy’s ice cream. “It’s good, right? It’s strawberry, your favourite,” added the boy and beamed up at the warlock, who froze.

 

Alec remembered that? In the past two weeks, Alec kept forgetting things about his adult life, yet he never seemed to forget certain things about Magnus. “You’re able to remember that?” asked Magnus curiously and Alec nodded.

 

“Yes!” said Alec and giggled. “I made a list of your favourite things so that I don’t forget,” stated the boy simply and Magnus’ heart melted.

 

“That was very smart of you,” said Isabelle and Alec gave her a shy smile.

 

As Alec went on to explain what he and Clary did in the park, Magnus kept listening to his rumbling and he was smiling. However, his smile soon disappeared after that and sadness settled deep within him. Sure, Alec was an adorable kid, but he missed his Alec, the one that he fell in love with. At first, it was fun, but after two weeks of no progress at all, Magnus started fearing of the worst; that he might not be able to get Alec back… at least not that soon. He cursed out loud and that startled Alec, who quickly stopped talking and cocked his head to the side when he saw that Magnus wasn’t smiling anymore.

 

“Did I say something wrong?” asked Alec and Magnus quickly shook his head. “Then why are you sad?”

 

Magnus bit into his lower lip and just forced on a smile. “I was just thinking… how it wasn’t fair that you didn’t bring me back any ice cream,” he lied. “You know that I’m quite a sweet tooth.”

 

“Here, you can have mine!” exclaimed Alec and offered it to Magnus, who took it and his heart squeezed. “You won’t feel sad anymore, right? We can always share,” he then added and his pure words touched Magnus’ heart.

 

“Yes, I feel a lot better now,” said Magnus and his smile faltered just a bit, but Alec didn’t notice that. “Thank you.”

 

“Of course,” said Alec. “I want you to always keep smiling. I don’t like it when you’re sad,” told him Alec and then went back to playing with Chairman Meow.

 

As Magnus was sure that Alec wasn’t looking anymore, the smile disappeared and Izzy gave him an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him back,” she said and Magnus slowly nodded.

 

“Yeah, I know,” he replied with a heavy heart and the weak smile was back on his face when Alec turned around to look at him, sending him a bright smile. However, sadness still lingered around as he kept watching little Alec playing around with his kitten. Chairman Meow took quite a liking at Alec as a kid as well and Magnus' mood brightened just a little bit when Alec took Chairman up into his lap and then carried it over to Jace, placing the cat onto his head, messing up Jace's 'perfect' hairdo. It was quite funny how much little Alec liked bullying Jace and Magnus had to admit it that it was quite hilarious.

 

After an hour or so, the trio decided to head back to the Institute, leaving Magnus and Alec finally alone. The little boy couldn't be happier about that; alone time with Magnus was his favourite part of the day and he grinned as he walked up to Magnus, who was sitting on the couch, reading one of those big, old books. Alec noticed that that was something Magnus did a lot and the boy couldn't figure it out what was so fascinating about reading books. Most of them were boring, especially the ones which had no pictures in them. Magnus, on the other hand, was still trying to find _something_. Anything. And as he kept skimming through the book in his lap, the frown between his eyebrows grew deeper and deeper, making Alec quite frustrated when he saw that Magnus looked worried and in a bad mood again. Didn't ice cream from before help?

 

“Magnus, are you busy?” asked Alec with a small voice, staying away from the warlock as he didn't want to come in between his work. When Magnus was working, Alec tried to make himself invisible and usually, Chairman Meow kept him company during those times. As the boy spoke, Magnus looked up and quickly closed the book, placing it onto the coffee table, shaking his head because he could tell that Alec wanted to spend some time with him.

 

“No, not busy. I always have time for my favourite Shadowhunter,” joked Magnus and Alec felt his face heating up, but he ignored his own embarrassment for the time being. Instead, a bright smile spread across his face and he slowly made his way to Magnus, sitting on the couch next to him. “What do you want to do, Alexander?” asked Magnus and Alec shrugged.

 

“I don't know,” mumbled the little boy and Magnus just pressed his lips together, his heart still feeling kind of heavy and he puffed his cheeks. “Do you want to do something?” asked Alec quickly then when he saw the sadness creeping upon the warlock’s face again and his smile dropped completely when Magnus shrugged as well. Was Magnus still sad about ice cream? If he knew, he would ask Clary to buy one for Magnus too. Or, they could go together instead. “Are you still sad about that ice cream?” asked Alec.

 

“What?” asked Magnus surprised and then quickly shook his head, smiling when he remembered his own words from before. Alec worrying about him like that was heart-warming and he just smiled down at the boy, shaking his head. “No, of course not. You shared your ice cream with me and that made me very happy,” he said and Alec perked up happily, but he could still sense some sadness in Magnus' eyes.

 

“Then why do you look so sad?” asked Alec carefully and Magnus only looked down and sighed as a response. Wanting to cheer Magnus up, Alec scooted closer to him and then got onto his knees, leaning up. He gently pinched one of Magnus' cheeks, like the man usually did to him when he tried to cheer him up. Magnus' eyes widened and then he just chuckled when Alec carefully ruffled his hair, careful not to mess it up. “You can tell me. Lay it all on me, young man,” said Alec softly as he placed his hand on top of Magnus' shoulder.

 

Magnus' heart fluttered with joy when he saw Alec mimicking his actions and he just bit into his lower lip as Alec was trying his best to cheer him up. Actually, he was doing a pretty good job since Magnus' bad mood was almost completely gone. “It's a bit complicated,” said Magnus and a smile tugged at his lips. “I don't know if-”

 

“Magnus, I'm old enough, I can handle adult stuff,” said the boy and nodded. “I'm nine and-”

 

“You're eight, Alec,” said Magnus and grinned when he saw Alec's annoyance kicking in. The boy hated it when he would mess around with him like that. In Alec's opinion, he was old enough and didn't see Magnus' point when he would tell him that he was still too young for some things.

 

“Eight and a half,” said Alec stubbornly, which by his logic, was almost nine. “I'm a big boy,” he then announced and Magnus had to hold back his laughter. “I wanna help you, like you help me when I'm feeling sad,” he then added and Magnus felt his chest tightening. That sounded a lot like the Alec he used to know and he just nervously chewed on his lower lip.

 

“I just,” started Magnus. “Lost someone who's very dear to me. I'm trying to bring that... friend back, but I'm having some difficulties,” he went on by saying. “And I miss him. A lot.”

 

“Oh,” said Alec and felt sad as well. He didn't know that Magnus had it so difficult. “I'm sorry.”

 

“It's okay.”

 

“Is there anything I can do?” asked Alec and Magnus thought about it for a few seconds, before he signed him to come closer.

 

“You can come here and give me a hug,” said Magnus and Alec was there in the next second. A smug smile came upon Magnus' lips as Alec leaned in for a hug, which Magnus returned, but then started tickling Alec, catching him completely off guard, a high pitched yelp leaving Alec's mouth, which soon transformed into little giggles and uncontrollable laughter.

 

“Stop it,” screamed Alec as he was giggling and somehow managed to free himself, quickly jumping onto his legs, but his eyes widened when Magnus was standing as well, taking a step towards him, Alec quickly taking one back. “Don't,” warned him Alec.

 

“What?” asked Magnus and then glanced down at Alec. “Tickle monster's gonna get you,” he then said and Alec started giggling again as he ran away from Magnus, the warlock running behind him, smiling as well. Little Alec was able to bring out the childish side of the warlock, who didn't mind it at all. As he continued chasing Alec around his apartment, he was able to put his restless mind to peace and he decided that he should stop feeling sad. Alec was still there. That was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your support, I'm so happy to see that you're enjoying this so far.  
> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well ;)


	4. Chapter 4

''Come on, Alec, come out. Now's not the time to be playing hide and seek, little man,'' said Magnus, who was desperate to get Alec stop playing, because they needed to get going over to Catarina's, who apparently found something that would potentially help them out with breaking the de-aging spell that Alec had been hit with. “I promise that we’ll play hide and seek later, okay? You know Cat, she’s a dear friend of mine,” tried Magnus again and then rolled his eyes, because Alec was nowhere to be seen. However, he quite soon heard giggling coming from the bedroom and the warlock couldn’t help but to smile. Slowly, he was getting the hang of taking care of little Alec and a part of him wished that he could have kids for real. Maybe he and Alec could adopt after the spell would be broken. Alec always kept telling him how much he wanted to be a father.

Alec, who was hiding under Magnus’ bed, stopped giggling when he saw a pair of feet coming closer to the bedroom and he just squeezed himself against the wall, still under the bed and placed a hand on top of his lips, trying to hide his breathing as well. Alec didn’t really want to visit Catarina; it was a lot more fun if it was just him and Magnus. Spending time alone with the warlock was always fascinating and the more Alec got to know him, the more he liked him. Though, deep inside, he had a feeling that he already knew all of the things that Magnus kept telling him, he just couldn’t remember where he had heard that. Maybe Jace told him something about Magnus? He knew that they were friends, but little Alec didn’t know how and when they became so close. But, he knew that he liked having a friend like Magnus.

As time passed, almost a month after Alec had been hit with the spell, the boy completely forgot things from his adult life. The boy didn’t remember about the things they once shared, but then again, after Magnus gave it another thought, he came to conclusion, it was probably for the best. It was too bizarre to have a child remember every little detail of their relationship. Now, Alec thought that they were best friends and for the time being, that didn’t bother warlock one bit. However, it did make him worried of what would happen after they would bring Alec back. Would his memories return as well?

Pushing those thoughts away, Magnus smirked when he saw Alec crawling from the other side of the bed, trying to find a new hiding spot, but Magnus was faster than him and quickly jumped in front of the crawling boy, startling him in the process, Alec letting out a loud yelp and then fell back, catching himself on his hands, Magnus’ loud laughter filling the bedroom. “I found you,” said Magnus. “So, the game’s over, Shadowhunter,” he said and got down onto his knees. “Come on, let’s go see Catarina.”

“No,” stated Alec stubbornly. “I don’t wanna,” he then stated, crossing his arms on top of his chest and glared at Magnus, who rolled his eyes and then sat onto the floor.

“What’s up with the attitude?” asked Magnus softly and Alec just bowed his head down. “You like Catarina, right? You told me that last night that you like spending time with her. So, why don’t you want to visit her?”

“Because,” said Alec and bit into his lower lip. “You promised that today will be our day. Just you and me,” said the boy and placed his hands behind his back. “You weren’t home yesterday and the day before. You’re always busy and I’m stuck here with… Clary,” said Alec and narrowed his eyes. “You’re a lot more fun and you _promised_ that today will be just us,” said Alec stubbornly and gave Magnus an angry look. “All adults are liars.”

“I meant when I said it,” said Magnus softly and his heart ached when he saw the betrayal written all over Alec’s face. It almost made him call Catarina and tell her that they weren’t coming, but then he remembered that he needed to do what was best for Alec; if Cat told him that she found something, then maybe finally, they’d be able to bring Alec back. “But something came up,” said Magnus. “Look, I’m really sorry and I’ll make it up to you,” said the warlock. “What if we go to the cinema on the way back home?” tried Magnus and Alec just stiffened and shook his head.

“I,” started Alec and then stopped talking, still in his sulking mode. Going to the cinema with Magnus seemed like fun, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be just them. He didn’t want to share his free time with Magnus with other people. Now, if it would be just the two of them watching movies in Magnus’ apartment like usually, then he wouldn’t mind. “Can’t we just watch movies here?” asked Alec with a small voice, trying to convince the other one again and the warlock only sighed.

“Sure, we can watch TV here at home as well,” said Magnus, but knew that Alec was going somewhere else with that. “But first we need to go see Catarina. She said she has some good news about-”

“No!” whined Alec and puffed his cheeks. “I. Don’t. Want. To,” said Alec slowly and then turned around from Magnus. “You _promised_ ,” said the little Shadowhunter again, trying to guilt trip Magnus into staying at home, but the warlock had enough experience with kids to know how their manipulation worked.

“Sometimes our plans can change,” said Magnus softly. “I promise to make it up to you. But now we don’t really have the time to be arguing about this. Please, be good and listen to me. Okay?”

“But-”

“You like Catarina, right?” asked Magnus and Alec slowly nodded, because he couldn’t really lie about that. “See? Then it shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal about it.”

“I just wanted to spend some time with you alone,” muttered Alec, still sulking, but he was slowly starting to give up. He was looking down, but then slowly looked up and Magnus bit into his lower lip when he heard that, guilt slowly setting in again. “You’re always so busy and I don’t like it when you leave. It feels lonely without you and I get a funny feeling in here,” added Alec and placed a hand over his chest, pointing to his heart.

“Oh my God,” stammered Magnus when he heard all of that. It was true that he was out almost every day, but it was because he was trying to find a solution to break the spell. And while he felt horrible for leaving the boy alone with the others, he never thought that Alec missed him that much. “I didn’t know,” said Magnus and bowed his head down, placing a hand on top of Alec’s messy hair, gently ruffling it. “From now on, I promise to be home more often, okay?” he then asked and Alec slowly nodded, his face slowly brightening. “But we really need to go see Catarina. However, after that, I promise that you’ll have me all for yourself,” he then said and crossed his heart as a promise.

Alec frowned and started thinking about it, in the end deciding to give Magnus another chance. He brought a hand up and extended out his pinkie. “Pinkie promise?” asked Alec; that was how he and Izzy kept their promises to each other and Magnus’ heart almost melted at the boy’s actions.

Without thinking twice, Magnus wrapped his pinkie around Alec’s and nodded. “Yes, it’s a pinkie promise,” he said softly and it was then that Alec threw himself around his neck and Magnus just wrapped his arms around the boy, placing a quick kiss on top of Alec’s head. As he did that, Alec literally jumped and quickly broke their hug, his face red as a tomato and Magnus arched an eyebrow, not getting why Alec was blushing now. “Alexander, are you feeling okay?”

When Magnus called him by his full name, Alec flinched and blushed even more, not really getting why his heart was beating so fast. He just nodded and turned around. “I’m fine,” stammered the boy. “I-I’ll go get ready and then we can go over to see Catarina,” he then added and hurried into the bedroom.

Magnus kept standing there for a few moments and when he finally realised that Alec was just his usual shy self, he couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Blushing Alec was always adorable, no matter what and he just kept smiling as he waited for Alec to get ready for their trip.

* * *

After Alec and Magnus portalled off to Catarina’s and reached her place, the boy kept himself busy with reading a book that Catarina gave to him, while Magnus and Catarina were busy with discussing more serious things. She told Magnus that she was finally able to locate what kind of a curse changed Alec into a child and luckily there was a solution for it; a potion. Magnus was happy about the news, however, his bad mood was soon present again when he saw the amount of ingredients needed for the potion and he knew that it wasn’t so easy. It would take weeks before he’d be able to get all of the ingredients, even with all of the other’s help and it would take a lot of time and patience for the potion to be brewed. However, at least now they knew what they were dealing with.

“Where the hell am I going to get all of this?” asked Magnus as he was looking the ingredients, nervously chewing on his lower lip and he let out a desperate sigh. “I could ask children of the night for help, because they’re more familiar with most of these things. And the Shadowhunters will help as well,” he then added and kept frowning. “But still, to think that it’s such a complicated potion.”

“It’s one of the most complicated potions I’ve seen so far,” said Catarina, who was frowning as well. “But at least now we know what we’re dealing with,” she then added and gave her friend a warm smile when she saw how concerned he looked. “I’ll pull a few strings and you’ll be able to get the ingredients in no time,” added Catarina and that calmed Magnus down a little bit.

“Is there a possibility that it doesn’t work?” asked Magnus, knowing that there was always a chance that the potions wouldn’t work perfectly.

“There’s always that possibility,” said Catarina. “But you worry too much. It’ll work, you’ll see.”

“What if it doesn’t? Will he be still able to grow up?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Catarina with a lower voice, so that Alec couldn’t hear what they were talking about. “If the potion doesn’t work, I’m afraid he’ll be stuck as a kid forever,” she added and Magnus went white in the face, chills creeping up his spine and he felt his heart cracking again.

“Forever? Oh God,” stammered Magnus. He then looked over to Alec, who was happily reading the book of fairytales that Catarina gave to him and his heart sunk to the pit of his stomach, fearing of the worst. He missed his Alexander terribly and even though he loved the little boy, he was growing more and more desperate to see him again. “I miss him, Catarina. What if the potion won’t work?”

“What potion, Magnus?” asked Alec suddenly, lifting his gaze from the book curiously. He was right in the middle of a story about how a prince was saving a princess, but he could still hear Catarina’s and Magnus’ conversation and he hated the fact that Magnus was upset about something again.

“Oh, it’s nothing important, sweetie,” said Catarina and Alec wrinkled his nose. He didn’t like that kind of a nickname because they made him feel shy and he didn’t like being shy, especially not in front of Magnus. “Just a simple potion that we are working on,” added Catarina and gave Alec a little smile, but he could see right through her, knowing that she was lying.

“That’s not true,” said Alec and looked at Magnus. “Is it?”

“Not really,” said Magnus, not wanting to lie to Alec again and then signed the boy to come closer to him. Alec wasted no time and he was right next to Magnus in the next second, trying to say something that would make Magnus feel better. “It’s quite a complicated potion and well, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to brew it correctly,” said Magnus with a small voice and Alec cocked his head to the side, not really getting what the big idea was about that. Besides, he knew that Magnus would be able to do it; he was a cool and powerful warlock.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Alec and placed a hand on top of Magnus’ shoulder. “You’re the most powerful person I know, you’ll be able to do it. I believe in you,” he then said, trying to give him the best pep talk that he possibly could and that touched Magnus. Because the warlock was speechless, Alec leaned up and hugged Magnus like the other usually did and ignored the little skip that his heart did.

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Magnus and smiled.

That was enough to make Magnus feel a lot better and he felt motivated enough to be sure that he would be able to make that potion. He gave Alec a tiny smile once the other broke their hug, he leaned down to pinch Alec’s cheeks. The boy let out a squeak and quickly backed away, blushing furiously when he saw Magnus chuckling, holding his red cheeks and he quickly turned away, shaking his head. He was glad that he made Magnus smile like that, but still felt a bit awkward, so he just went back to reading the book. Magnus, on the other hand, turned to Catarina, who already started making the list of things she already had in her storage, Magnus adding the things that he had in his and then they started coming up with a plan that would help them get all of the other ingredients.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your support, I'm so happy to see that you're enjoying this so far.  
> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well ;)


	5. Chapter 5

''Where is Alec?'' asked Maryse, who was on the verge of losing her temper. She had just caught Jace glamoured as Alec leading an important meeting at the Institute and while others managed to fall for Jace's little charade, she didn't; she knew her sons well enough to know who was who even though one might been hiding behind the glamour. It was the first time that she came to New York in the month after Alec turned into a kid and she still had no idea what happened to him. At first, she heard that Alec caught a flu, which was kind of bizarre. Shadowhunters rarely got sick with a Mundane viruses, but she tried not to think too much of it; sometimes it still happened. Alec was in a lot of stress lately, so maybe his health deteriorated to this state that he wasn’t immune to Mundane’s illness; it wouldn’t be the first time that it happened.

Jace made a step back once they were in Maryse’s office and let his glamour down, nervously looking around the room, trying to come up with something. Jace made a promise to Alec, back when he still remembered most of his adult life that he would never let Maryse know what was going on. And they were very close to getting an antidote to the de-aging spell. Magnus already had gotten all of the needed ingredients fairly quickly, since everyone helped him to get them. And now, the potion was in the brewing process; it would only take Magnus a few days to make that potion, so Jace really couldn’t have the secret getting out now. Up until then it worked him pretending to be Alec; no one ever suspected that it was him glamoured as his _parabatai_. Not until Maryse decided to show up unannounced at the meeting that morning.

“Jace, when I ask a question, I expect to receive an answer!” demanded Maryse and then just bowed his head down, trying to keep her emotions and actions under control, but if it was about to get out that Jace was pretending to be Alec for only God knows how long, then consequences could be horrible. “Jace, please! Do you know what will happen if the Inquisitor hears about this? Alec will lose his position as the Head of the Institute. Plus, you will be imprisoned by the Clave. It’s a serious offence to take someone else’s identity, especially the identity of the Head of the Institute,” she then tried again and Jace slowly began cracking under pressure.

“I can’t give you an answer to that where Alec is,” said Jace slowly and took in a deep breath. “I glamoured as Alec for his own good. A month ago, on a mission, something happened to him and ever since then he was unable to lead the Institute. But I, Izzy and Clary got this,” he reassure the dumbfounded woman. “It was his order that I glamoured as him and take the job of the Head of the Institute. I did it only to protect him,” he then added and made a step back when he saw the anger on Maryse’s face.

“I knew it! I knew that it wasn’t a flu,” said Maryse and placed a palm on top of her lips. “So, you’re telling me that the Institute has been without anyone in charge for a _month?_ ” asked Maryse slowly, her voice strained. “Do you have any idea how serious this is? And what happened to Alec, where is he?”

“That I can’t tell you,” said Jace slowly and Maryse straightened herself up, worry written all over her face. “But, he’s okay. He hasn’t been hurt, he’s doing just fine,” said Jace and rolled his eyes when he remembered the annoying brat that Alec had turned into. “Well, annoying as well, but that’s not the point right now.”

“Tell me,” demanded Maryse. “I deserve to know, Jace,” warned him the woman. “I’m his _mother_ ,” she then added and narrowed her eyes. “I can’t have anything happening to my boy. If you won’t tell me the easy way, then I’ll make you spit out the truth. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to test a mother when she’s concerned about her son,” she then added and crossed her arms on top of her chest, arching an eyebrow and Jace just sighed, knowing that he needed to come clean to the woman. He could only hope that Alec wasn’t going to be too pissed afterwards. Maryse kind of didn’t give him a choice and since he knew how intimidating the woman could get, Jace chose the easier way.

“He’s over at Magnus’,” said Jace and pressed his lips together, trying to find a way to tell her what happened, but in the end came to the conclusion that it would be the easiest to show her what happened to Alec. “Come, it’ll be easier if I just show you,” he then said and Maryse frowned, but then agreed to follow the blond one over to Magnus’ place.

* * *

 

“Shit, it’s not working,” said Magnus, who was in the middle of brewing the potion and was slowly losing his mind. He had been working on the potion two days straight, day and night and the lack of sleep was getting to him. Also, the fact that the potion wasn’t looking like it should, was giving him extra anxiety. According to the book, the potion should be now turning into a bright blue colour, but the thing that Magnus in front of him was a dark purple colour, not really sure where he went wrong. He couldn’t start the potion all over again as well; his ingredients were already very limited and he didn’t have enough of them for an extra batch. Also, it would take much longer to collect all of the ingredients again.

“Where did it go wrong?” asked Magnus himself and started skimming through the directions again, letting out a defeated sigh when he couldn’t find anything wrong with the things that he did. The last step did tell him that he should wait a little longer, but the exact time was nowhere to be found. Two hours of waiting was what Magnus decided that it was more than enough and he was beginning to worry that he might had already failed. “I did everything right, it should change colour by now,” he continued the conversation with himself and rolled his eyes. “Shit, shit, shit.”

His stress and his choice of words caught Alec’s attention, who was currently in Magnus’ storage and was trying to clean up a bit after the warlock, since Magnus’ place was a mess at the moment. The boy peaked out and frowned when he saw Magnus leaning over the book again and was frantically turning the pages. It was then that Alec decided that the cleaning could wait a bit and he slowly came closer to Magnus, tugging his sleeve to get his attention.

“Is something wrong?” asked Alec softly and Magnus nodded, burying his face into his palms.

“The potion’s messing with my head,” whined Magnus. “It has to be one of the most difficult and complicated ones that I’ve tried to brew so far,” he then added and saw that Alec was now looking inside of the small cauldron, in which Magnus was brewing the potion, wrinkling his nose.

“What kind of a potion is it? It doesn’t smell very good,” said Alec.

“It’s for that friend of mine that I lost, remember?” said Magnus slowly and sighed. “It’ll help me bring him back, because he’s currently… somewhere else. I mean, he’s here, but it’s not really him,” went on by rumbling the warlock and Alec was just nodding along, not really following the situation, but he still wished that Magnus would be able to succeed. It looked like he missed his friend quite a lot.

“You’ll be able to do it,” stated Alec, not questioning Magnus’ abilities at all.

“I hope you’re right, young man,” said Magnus and sighed. “The last step said that I should wait for a little while, but I’ve been waiting for two hours now and the potion still didn’t change its colour. God, it’s helpless.”

“Oh,” said Alec and perked up. “Maybe you need to wait longer? Two hours is not a lot,” stated the boy.

“You think so?” asked Magnus and leaned over to the potion, which looked a lot brighter than it did a few minutes ago and he pressed his lips together. “Well then, let’s wait for a little longer,” said the warlock then and Alec happily nodded and sat down next to Magnus. “Which reminds me,” said the man. “What were you doing in my storage earlier?”

“Trying to clean it up,” said Alec as he was looking around, sighing when he saw that the living room was a mess as well.

“Oh you shouldn’t worry about that,” said Magnus softly and shook his head. “I have magic for that. I’ll tidy up later when the potion will be completed.”

“No, I want to help,” said Alec with a small voice. “You’re already tired and I don’t want you to be even more tired by using your magic like this,” he said and looked down, but then his eyes looked back up, this time finding Magnus’ ones and he smiled when he noticed that Magnus’ eyes were sparkling again.

“Well, this is very kind of you, little one,” said Magnus and Alec smiled proudly up at the older one. “But, I think you’ve worked enough for one day,” he then added when he remembered that Alec had been in there for quite a while. “You deserve a little break as well. While we wait for the potion to be ready for me to continue, should we have a little snack?” he then asked and Alec’s eyes lit up.

“Yes, please,” said Alec, because all of that cleaning did make the little boy hungry and he just perked up.

Magnus chuckled at Alec’s politeness; it was really remarkable how he acted towards him. Towards Jace and Clary, he wasn’t all that polite. But, when he was with Isabelle, he was well behaved. However, it was a completely different story when he was with Magnus. Alec always made sure that he was polite around and despite his young age at the moment, he always worried about Magnus’ well-being and did nothing that would upset the warlock. Upsetting Magnus seemed the worst thing that could the young Shadowhunter do and Magnus felt kind of special because of this. Even though Alec didn’t really remember him, he still had a special part in his heart.

“Very well then,” said Magnus and signed Alec to come closer. “What would you like to have?” he then asked, chuckling when he saw that Alec was thinking about it long and hard. In the end, Alec decided on pancakes and Magnus conjured two plates with pancakes; one for each of them. As Alec ate, Magnus kept looking at him and a little smile tugged at his lips when he saw how happy Alec looked. “Are they any good?” asked Magnus and Alec happily nodded.

“Yummy,” said Alec with his mouth full and Magnus only kept laughing when Alec kept making a mess as he ate, chocolate all around his lips and he wiped Alec’s lips clean when they were finished with their meal, making the dirty place disappear with just a snap of his fingers. Alec was mesmerized by the other’s magic, but what he found even more fascinating were Magnus’ eyes; they were sparkling. The little boy knew how much the man loved glitter make up, but that day, he was wearing extra amount of it and he just kept looking at Magnus’ eyes, shifting from side to side and his mouth opened wide when he saw the colours of the eyeshadow shifting from one colour to the other, the sparkles making Magnus’ eyes even more pretty.

“What? Do I have chocolate all over my face too?” asked Magnus when he noticed that Alec was staring up at him.

“No,” said Alec and shook his head. “Your eyes, they’re sparkling,” said the boy then and Magnus’ eyes widened when Alec said that, but then he smiled again and found it fascinating that Alec was interested in his make up apparently. “It’s so pretty,” he then added and Magnus bit into his lower lip. The eyeshadow that he decided to wear that day was Alec’s favourite, so in a way, he was glad to see that Alec still found it _pretty_ even as a kid.

“Why, thank you,” said Magnus and kept his chest tightening just a little bit and sadness came over him once again. Puffing his cheeks, his thoughts drifted to Alexander once again and as memories started flashing in front of his eyes, the glamour on his eyes dropped without him even knowing, revealing his cat-eyes and Alec took in a hitched breath. Magnus quite soon realised the mistake that he made and the glamour was back on, but the damage was already done. He could see that Alec looked surprised and if the boy would reject him or get scared, he didn’t know if his heart could take another heart break; it was heart-breaking enough to be struggling with bringing Alec back.

Alec’s eyes grew huge when he saw a glint of gold in Magnus’ eyes and he frowned; he remembered seeing that somewhere. It wasn’t the first time that he saw Magnus’ cat-eyes, yet he didn’t know where to place where he had seen them before. He could remember some hazy memories, but he didn’t know if they were dreams. It was a weird feeling. Alec’s smile dropped when Magnus hid his eyes from him and he cocked his head to the side when he saw that Magnus looked nervous.

“Sorry,” said Magnus. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“They’re so pretty,” said Alec without thinking twice and he straightened himself up. “I think that I’ve seen them before.”

Magnus smiled and weight lifted off of his chest when he heard that he didn’t frighten Alec away, nodding when he heard the second part. “Yes, I showed them to you… a while back,” admitted Magnus and Alec frowned, but in the end, just nodded, thinking that he probably just forgot about it. Just as Magnus was about to say something else, Alec looked over to the potion and his eyes lit up when he saw that the potion had changed its colour; now a light blue colour and he quickly dragged Magnus over to the cauldron.

“Look, the potion is ready,” said Alec and Magnus wasted no more time, adding the next needed ingredient, Alec there by his side, being his little helper, carrying certain things to him when he needed.

As the two of them continued with the potion, the entrance door of Magnus’ apartment suddenly opened and since Magnus had a feeling that it was probably Jace or Izzy, he didn’t think of it too much. Alec, on the other hand, was curious and walked up to the door, leaving Magnus alone with the potion for the time being. When Alec saw Jace stepping inside, a huge smile spread across his face when he saw his mother stepping in as well. He had been told that his parents were in Idris, which wasn’t a lie, and even though he had wanted to see them, he never said anything. But, he was very happy to see his mom stepping inside with Jace.

“Mommy!” exclaimed Alec and skipped over to his mom, who looked visibly distressed.

“A-Alec?” asked Maryse. “Is that you?” she then asked and looked over at Jace, who nodded and sighed.

When Magnus heard the conversation, he was quickly up on his legs and he walked over to them, giving Jace a confused look. “What is she doing here? Didn’t we have an agreement? Alec _said_ not to tell anyone,” said Magnus and then gave Maryse an apologetic look.

“She came from Idris unannounced today and caught me posing as him,” said the blond one. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“But to bring her here?”

“She wouldn’t believe me if I told her, trust me.”

“I’m right here, you know that, right?” asked Maryse, who was now holding Alec in her lap, still confused, but the little boy looked content with being in his mother’s lap. She still wasn’t sure of what was going on, but when she saw Alec as a little boy again, she couldn’t really hold back and took him up in his arms immediately. “And can anyone please tell me what the hell is going on here?”

Magnus rubbed his temples and glared over at Jace, who just looked away and walked into the living room. “Well, now we don’t have a choice left, do we?” said Magnus to himself and signed Maryse to join him in the living room. “Come, I’ll explain to you what’s been going on. It’s a long story, so you better sit down and brace yourself,” added Magnus and after the four of them were all in the living room, he told Maryse of what happened, the woman completely speechless at the end. However, she was kind enough to promise that she wouldn't allow to get the word of what happened to Alec out. She knew that it would cause many unneeded problems and when she saw that the potion was already almost done, she felt a lot calmer, a smile on her face as little Alec was currently in her lap, playing with her long hair. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to have Alec be a child for a little longer; she always thought that Alec had been growing up for too fast for her liking and she decided to make the best out of the time that she got to spend with her, now, little son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your support, I'm so happy to see that you're enjoying this so far.  
> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well ;)


	6. Chapter 6

 ''It's ready!'' exclaimed Magnus and his eyes were wide open in disbelief when he saw that the potion was already brewed. It appeared to be finished and it happened a lot earlier than he first thought. He promised to have Alec's friends and family to be over when he'd turn Alec back to his usual self, but deep inside he wished that it would be just the two of them and it looked like his wish came true. According to the instructions, one shouldn't wait too long to have the potion consumed, as there was a possibility of it not working properly if you'd wait longer. He could easily call Alec’s family though, but Magnus decided to be a bit selfish and welcome Alec back all on his own, having that as an excuse. So, because of this, Magnus happily sighed and then bit into his lower lip as he wasted no time to pour some of the potion onto a flask and quickly carried it into the bedroom, where Alec was currently playing.

 

While Magnus was busy with the potion, Alec went into the bedroom and decided to explore around for a little bit. Magnus' bedroom was filled with all kinds of interesting things and for a while now, the little boy wanted to check some of them out. One of the most interesting things that he found was Magnus' make up and that was exactly where he headed off to, climbing up to a chair and his eyes lit up when he saw all of the products on Magnus' table, happily rubbing his little palms together and he giggled. He didn't know much about make up, but he had given the warlock a little make over a few days ago and he was quite fascinated. He made sure that he made Magnus' eyes extra sparkly and deep inside he wished that he could try it out too, but was too embarrassed to express that wish out loud. However, now that he was alone in the room, he finally got the chance to experiment around. He, too, wished to have pretty eyes like Magnus.

 

He cared for none of the other products and immediately grabbed the eyeshadow pallet, happily smiling as he opened it up and admired all of the colours, trying to decide on one of them. However, as he did a bit more thinking, he frowned. Why only one colour when he could add more than only one? The more, the merrier, was what Alec decided on and he leaned closer to the mirror, dipping his finger into the blue shimmery eyeshadow and he rubbed it all over his eyelid, impressed when he saw how much his eye was sparkling. Because Magnus told him that he should always match the colours, he did the same on his other eye and then started exploring again, the next colour that caught his eyes was a silver one and he wasted no time, quickly applying that one onto his eyelid as well.

 

“So pretty,” said Alec when he added a third colour, purple one and that was when he finally decided that he had enough glitter on his eyes. The next thing that caught his attention was a necklace that was lying next to the makeup and Alec smiled when he remembered that that was what Magnus was wearing yesterday. He quickly put it around his neck and then turned around, deciding that he was going to turn himself into Magnus. The last missing piece was Magnus' clothes. Alec quickly hopped off the chair and went to Magnus' closet, opening it and started searching for some clothes.

 

Alec picked out his favourite shirt; a blue one with glitter all over it. Since the shirt came down to his knees, he decided that he didn't need pants and then he buttoned the shirt, checking himself out in the mirror. Because the sleeves were long, he rolled them up and then he giggled; he was quite pleased with how he looked like and it was then that he decided that the game could begin. He hopped up onto the bed and started laughing when he woke up Chairman Meow, who just let out an annoyed meow and then went into the corner of the room, yawned and lied back down.

 

“Yes, run away from me, fear me,” said Alec and extended his hands out. “Because I am the amazing Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn,” said Alec and giggled, continuing his little game of pretending to be Magnus.

 

When Magnus heard Alec talking to himself in his little game, he peaked inside of the room to see what Alec was playing and he chuckled when he saw Alec dressed up as him, running up and down the room, pretending to be blasting the demons away with his 'magic'. It was an adorable sight to behold and Magnus promised to himself that he was definitely going to tease Alexander later on when he'd be back to normal. He watched Alec for a few more minutes, until he had it enough and stepped inside of the room and Alec was literally catapulted on his legs when he saw Magnus stepping inside of the bedroom. Magnus' eyes widened when he saw that Alec was wearing his make up as well, but then a grin spread across his face.

 

“Hello there, little warlock,” said Magnus and Alec flinched, quickly taking the necklace away and he put it down onto the desk, concerned that Magnus might be angry with him. He did just go through his things without permission and he knew that that was very wrong. “Oh, I don't mind you wearing the necklace, you can put it back on,” said Magnus and Alec didn't need to be told twice, putting the necklace back around his neck. “I see that you went full out, huh?  Even the make up?”

 

“Yes,” said Alec. “Are you angry?”

 

“Of course not. How can I when you're this adorable?” asked Magnus and Alec rolled his eyes. He didn't quite like it when Magnus called him cute or adorable, but he didn't make a comment about it.

 

“Do you like it?” asked Alec and walked closer to Magnus. “The make up. How did I do?”

 

Magnus chuckled and cocked his head to the side. “It's... definitely sparkling,” said Magnus and Alec's face brightened. “Good job, Alec,” said Magnus then and Alec only happily smiled and then came a bit closer to the warlock.

 

Now that Magnus was there as well, Alec quickly found of a game that they could play together and he tugged onto Magnus’ sleeve, who looked into his direction when he saw that the boy needed to tell him something. “Do you want to play together?” asked innocently the boy. “I’ll be you and you can be me,” he said excitedly and his eyes were literally shining. “It’ll be fun, we’ll go on a mission and we’ll fight the demons,” added the boy happily and looked up at the warlock.

 

Magnus chuckled at the preposition and while it sounded like fun, he didn’t want to waste any more time. He needed to see if the potion that he spent days working on worked; he couldn’t go on like this anymore. God knew how much he loved little Alec, but his heart was literally slowly crumbling apart for not being able to see his Alec. It’s been more than a month. Also, roleplaying in a different scenario sounded that more inviting to the older one. “Hmm, maybe,” said Magnus and then pressed his lips, Alec frowning when he saw that Magnus didn’t look very enthusiastic about the game that he had just come up with. “We’ll do that later. But first, I need you to do something for me. Do you think we could agree on that?”

 

“Yes,” said Alec and walked up to Magnus.

 

“Good boy,” said Magnus and Alec happily grinned. “Can you please follow me into the living room? I have something to show you,” he then added and Alec only nodded, following the man into the living room and his eyes widened when he saw what was on the coffee table.

 

Since he knew that Magnus was still working hard on the potion to bring his lost friend back, that was what his eyes located first and he was impressed, because it looked like the potion was ready. Alec didn’t know much about potions, but since Magnus already put it into a flask that usually meant that it was ready for consumption. “Is the potion ready?” asked Alec and when Magnus nodded, Alec happily skipped over to the coffee table to take a closer look at the potion. He leaned over to the cauldron, where there was still some of the potion left and grimaced as he took in a deep breath. “Yuck, it still smells gross.”

 

“I have to agree with you on that one, it smells pretty bad,” said Magnus in agreement and then came closer to the boy, thinking of a way to have Alec drink the potion. Maybe he should had told him that the potion was for him from the very beginning, but at the same time, he didn’t want little Alec having to worry about it all the time. That was why he kept it as a secret from him. But now, he didn’t know how to break it to him.

 

“So now you’ll be able to bring your friend back?” asked Alec, happy for Magnus. All this time, he kept his fingers crossed and helped as much as he could to have the potion be made as it should be. He wanted Magnus to be happy and reunited with his friend. “I’m so happy for you,” he then added and Magnus just gave him a weak smile.

 

“Hopefully this’ll be able to bring him back, yes,” said Magnus and then chewed on his lower lip. “There’s still a possibility that it won’t work as it should,” he then added and Alec cocked his head to the side. “If it won’t work, I’ll never be able to see that person again,” he said and felt his heart squeezing, weight pressing down onto his chest. “I don’t know what I’ll do if this happens.”

 

“It will work,” said Alec and nodded, completely sure of his own words. He knew that Magnus was capable of everything, so there wasn’t even a doubt in his mind that the potion wasn’t going to work out. “You’ll see, please don’t be sad,” he then added and Magnus gave him a little smile. This time, not even Alec’s words were able to cheer him up and he looked up at the clock, fearing that he had already lost too much time. As Alec sat onto the couch, Magnus took the flask into his hand and walked over to the boy, kneeling down in front of him and handed him the flask, Alec’s eyes growing wide when the potion was handed to him.

 

“I have to tell you something,” said Magnus and Alec didn’t dare to move, his eyes focused on the flask with the dark purple liquid inside. “The potion is for you,” added the warlock and all of the colour suddenly drained from Alec’s face. There was no way that he’d drink that, it smelled really bad. Also, why for him?! “The friend that I lost…” stammered Magnus, but then his voice trailed off.

 

“It’s me?” asked Alec carefully.

 

“Yes,” said Magnus and he could see confusion written all over Alec’s face. “A month ago, something happened to you,” said the warlock. “I don’t know how to explain it to you so that you’ll be able to understand it, but,” said Magnus and took a few moments of silence to collect his thoughts. “You were cursed by a very, very bad demon, Alec. You used to be an adult, but that bad demon turned you into a child. And because of that you forgot some things about yourself and what happened in your life,” he added.

 

“What?” stammered Alec. He was speechless. “But I remember everything! Izzy and Jace are my older brother and sister. You’re my best friend,” stated the little boy, who couldn’t understand what in the world was Magnus talking about. “My mom and dad-”

 

“Isabelle and Jace are your younger siblings. Also, you have another brother, Max,” whispered Magnus and Alec quickly shook his head. “And we weren’t exactly best friends when-”

 

The boy’s head was spinning and his heart was beating faster. He couldn’t understand what Magnus was talking about. Was that some kind of a prank?  Alec knew for a fact that he was the youngest one in the family. And who was that Max that Magnus was talking about? His heart broke when Magnus said that they weren’t best friends and he placed his palms on top of his ears, not wanting to hear more of those cruel words.

 

“You’re lying,” said Alec and shook his head. “We _are_ best friends,” he said, on the verge of tears. “Why would you say that we aren’t best friends?! You’re a jerk, Magnus! Stupid!” he then said and squeezed his eyes shut, Magnus’ heart squeezing when he saw Alec’s reaction and when he tried to hug the boy in an attempt to calm him down, Alec just pushed him away. “Go away if we aren’t friends!”

 

“Alexander, please, listen to me,” said Magnus, looking over to the clock again. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “Before all of this happened, you were much, much older. You were an adult and I-”

 

“Liar!”

 

“I’m not lying,” said Magnus softly and placed his hand on top of Alec’s head, who just squeezed himself against the couch, but didn’t push Magnus away again. He was too heart-broken. It hurt when Magnus said that they weren’t friends. “Look at me, angel,” said Magnus and even though he was still in tears, Alec slowly looked up at the warlock, who wore a pained expression on his face. “Have I ever lied to you?” asked Magnus and after a few moments, Alec slowly shook his head. “See? I’d never lie to you. Never, ever,” said Magnus and then held the flask up to Alec again, growing desperate. “So please, drink this. I’m beginning you.”

 

“No.”

 

“Please,” said Magnus and Alec’s eyes widened when he saw tears in Magnus’ eyes as well. Alec’s tears dried when Magnus gently hugged his cheek and pressed a kiss on top of his forehead, Alec’s heart tightening as well when he saw tears falling down Magnus’ face. The warlock was a mess, but he couldn’t change how he felt. “I miss you so much, I’m begging you. Just drink this. Don’t you trust me?”

 

“Don’t cry,” whispered Alec, but still didn’t take the potion. He trusted Magnus more than anyone else, but he still couldn’t wrap his head around all of this. How could he not remember? All of that sounded like a bad joke, but when he looked up at Magnus again, he knew that he was telling him the truth. Why would he be crying then? But still… he felt uncertain. “Will the potion make me remember things about you?” asked Alec softly and Magnus quickly nodded. “I’ll be older again?”

 

“Yes, it’ll bring you back to normal,” said Magnus, who was now wiping his tears away. He couldn’t believe that he let his guard down like that in front of the boy, but he couldn’t go on pretending that he was okay. After a month of holding back the tears, he couldn’t really do that anymore, especially now that he was so close to bringing Alec back; emotions were running high. “You’ll be able to remember everything,” he then added and Alec hesitated for a bit and then finally took the flask into his hands. “Do you believe me?”

 

“Yes,” said Alec with a small voice, wrinkling his nose when he looked down to the potion and gave Magnus a disgusted look. “I have to drink all of this?”

 

“Yeah,” said Magnus and chuckled when he saw how unimpressed the boy looked like. Well, he couldn’t blame him, the potion looked and smelled nasty. “I know, it smells and looks terrible,” said Magnus and Alec nodded, still uncertain.

 

“And I have to do it now?”

 

“The more time we wait, the less the potion will be strong,” said Magnus and nervously looked up at the clock, Alec finally understanding why Magnus was in such a hurry to get him to drink that potion.

 

“Okay,” said Alec and took in a deep breath. “Can I ask something else?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Earlier… you said that we weren’t best friends,” stammered Alec. “W-when I drink this and I’m back to normal,” he then added. “I-I want to continue being close to you. Because if we weren’t friends before, then why… are you being so nice to me?” said the Shadowhunter and Magnus nodded.

 

“Well, the older version of you is my boyfriend,” blurted out Magnus and Alec’s eyes widened. Alec looked to the potion and then back up at Magnus. Even though Alec was still a kid, he knew how relationships worked and for a while now he knew that he liked-liked Magnus. Knowing that that older version of himself was lucky enough to have Magnus as a boyfriend made the boy all giddy inside.

 

“ _Boyfriend?_ ” asked Alec, his voice high pitched and his face darkened into deep shades of red, giving him enough motivation to drink that disgusting potion after all when Magnus nodded. Magnus almost started laughing when Alec eagerly brought the flask up to his lips and didn’t even think twice before emptying it. If Magnus knew that telling Alec they were boyfriends would make him so determined, he’d say that at the beginning.

 

Alec almost gagged when the bitter taste of the potion filled his mouth. The consistency of the potion was very thick, what made drinking it even that more horrible and he had to force it down his throat, sticking out his tongue as the flask was empty, pressing a hand on top of his mouth, in order not to throw up. He felt his stomach making a flop and tears went to his eyes, squeezing them tightly shut as he was trying to get rid of the disgusting taste in his mouth by wiping his tongue against Magnus’ shirt.

 

“Is it that bad?” asked Magnus, feeling sorry for the boy and Alec only nodded, slowly opening his eyes, curiously looking around.

 

“Do I look older already?” asked Alec and extended his hands out, trying to study if he had gotten any taller, so he extended his legs as well, but then pouted when he saw that the potion wasn’t working that fast. Magnus chuckled when he saw Alec and he shook his head.

 

“It’ll take a while before the potion starts working,” said Magnus, but after a few more moments passed and nothing seemed to change, he started worrying as well. “It should be working by now,” said Magnus and got up onto his legs, walking over to the coffee table to get the book and see what it said.

 

It was when he turned around that Alec felt a sharp pain in his stomach. The pain was so intense that it made him drop the flask that he was still holding in his hands, his arms going around his stomach. He leaned forward, trying to ease the pain in his stomach, but that made the pain grow even stronger. He let out a loud yelp of pain and Magnus quickly turned around, his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach when he saw Alec in pain.

 

“Magnus, help!” screamed the boy. “Hurts, it hurts so much,” he yelled out, tears streaming down his face and Magnus dropped the book that he was holding, scooping the boy into his lap, not knowing what to do.

 

Just what did he do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for ending this chapter with a cliff hanger like that ^^;  
> Everything will be resolved in the next chapter, I promise ;)
> 
> Thank you for all of the support so far and I hope you liked this chapter as well :P


	7. Chapter 7

The boy kept holding onto Magnus' hand as pain was still piercing through his body. He tried to be brave and not cry too much, but he couldn't handle it, yelling out Magnus' name as the pain started spreading from his stomach throughout his entire body, feeling as if an invisible force was stretching him out, his limbs literally on fire. Honestly, it would hurt less if someone would cut off his arms and legs and he curled up into a ball, still sitting in Magnus' lap, almost forgetting how to breathe when he felt another stab at his stomach, throwing his head back. He bit into his lower lip so much that he made his lower lip bleed and Magnus just helplessly watched the younger one struggling in his lap.

 

Magnus felt terrible and he quickly placed the boy down onto the couch, got onto his legs and hovered on top of him, snapping his fingers and brought them above Alec's body, trying to take away the pain with his magic. He let out a hitched breath when he could feel Alec's pain through the spell, forcing himself not to think of it too much and just concentrated on making Alec feel better. He knew that it would be probably pretty painful when Alec would be turning back to his usual self, but nothing could prepare him for what he witnessed. The boy's face was thrown into the pillow as he tried to even out his breathing, droplets of sweat gathering on his forehead, his hair stuck to it and the make up that he put on himself earlier smeared from the tears that were still streaming down Alec's cheeks.

 

“Mag... nus,” said Alec in between his screams and he groaned as he forced himself to open his eyes and saw Magnus there next to him, trying to ease his pain. He could feel the man's magic working a bit, but the pain was still present there. Although the pain wasn't there for more than a couple of minutes, it felt like hours of torture to the little boy and he pressed his lips together. “Am I going to die?” he asked, because it felt like he was dying. He was desperate to get the pain to stop and he didn't even think about what he was saying.

 

“No, of course not,” said Magnus and his heart was breaking at the question. “This means that the potion is working,” he then added, not really sure of that himself, but he refused to believe otherwise. “You'll be just fine.”

 

Alec nodded and decided to believe Magnus; it would be all worth it in the end. He gritted his teeth again and winced when the pain was getting stronger and more intense. Somewhere in the middle of everything, little Alec couldn't stand the pain anymore. His vision became blurry, his entire body shivering as his vision became black and somewhere in the distance, he could hear Magnus yelling out his name. But, he felt far too tired and exhausted to answer to it; weight was pressing down onto his body and he was completely unable to move. Luckily, his body couldn't register pain anymore and the only thing he could hear before losing consciousness completely was the fast beating of his own heart and his own shaky breath.

 

Magnus froze when Alec suddenly stopped moving and he gently touched the boy's shoulder, gently shaking it in order to wake the boy up, but nothing happened. Alec's limp body laid sprawled across his couch and he felt shivers running up his spine. Alec was still breathing, he could clearly see his chest lifting and descending, but the fact that he fainted like that worried the hell out of him. He placed a palm on top of the hunter's forehead and chewed on his lower lip when he noticed how cold Alec was, paler than usual and he just swore loudly, angry with himself.

 

It was his fault that Alec got like that! He shouldn't had been so pushy and needy to get his Alec back! It was his first time brewing the potion and he could had taken a longer time span to put the potion to the test, to see its side effects. Also, he knew for a fact that the Lightwoods were going to murder him after they'd find out what he did without their permission. He should have called them; maybe they would be able to help. But no, he had to be selfish and went through all of it without them agreeing to them. What if the potion hurt Alec? Sure he missed him before, but at least then he had Alec still with him.

 

“Just what have I done?” whispered Magnus, who was now talking to himself and then bowed his head down, trying to think of something. He needed a plan. He needed to call Catarina and tell her what happened. She was the one who gave him that book, so maybe she knew something more. But he doubted that, because as she said it herself; it was the first for her as well to see this kind of a curse. He buried his face into his palms and sighed; he felt like crying. Shaking his head, Magnus slowly turned around to take another look at the unconscious boy, but what he saw startled him.

 

Expecting to see a boy, Magnus let out a loud gasp when he saw a young man, now, laying on the couch, still out of it. He almost had a heart attack when he saw Alec in his usual form, as an adult, and it needed quite a few seconds that Magnus finally realised what had happened. The potion worked; Alec reverted back to his usual age. As an adult. Alec was there. The potion worked. It worked. He brought his Alec back. He was back. A wave of relief washed through Magnus' body and he just smiled. Finally. God, he missed him so much.

 

“The potion worked,” whispered Magnus and thanked the Angels, before he came closer to his boyfriend, who was still not moving and gently shook Alec's body, trying to wake him up. Magnus shook Alec a few times before Alec finally responded. “Alexander, wake up,” said Magnus softly and his heart skipped a beat when he saw Alec's eyebrows flinching and he decided to try again. “I'm here, open your eyes,” whispered the warlock, placing a hand on top of Alec's forehead and he gently caressed that spot, holding in his breath when Alec slowly opened his eyes.

 

When Alec opened his eyes, Magnus didn't know what to expect. Maybe Alec forgot what happened to him altogether. Magnus kind of wished that Alec would be able to remember the past month, but he would be able to live with it if he forgot about it. Now, what scared him the most, was the possibility of Alec forgetting him and everyone around him completely. That was something that he probably wouldn't be able to live with.

 

Alec didn't know what was going around him or where he was for the first few minutes. He tried to focus his eyes on the man hovering on top of him, frowning when he saw that he seemed very concerned about him. However, as minutes passed, fractions of memories started flashing in front of his eyes and finally, he was able to remember who he was and who the man, who was now playing with his hair, was. “Magnus,” stammered Alec, his mouth feeling terribly dry and Magnus smiled when Alec said his name. He remembered him. That was all that mattered. “I'm thirsty.”

 

“Yes, of course,” said Magnus quickly and backed away a bit so that he could conjure a glass of water. Alec smiled when he saw the glass of water appearing in Magnus' hand and he slowly forced himself into a sitting position, Magnus' arm catching him when he almost collapsed back against the couch, helping him to sit up properly. “Take it easy, love,” said Magnus softly and sat down next to Alec, still having his free arm wrapped around him and Alec groaned, because his entire body felt sore. “Here,” he then said and brought the glass in front of Alec's lips.

 

Alec smiled, but then frowned when he saw that Magnus intended to hold the glass as he drank. “Thank you, Magnus, but I think I can manage drinking on my own,” said Alec and rolled his eyes. Magnus, however, didn't take a no for an answer.

 

“Oh, shush, let me spoil you for a bit. You can’t even sit up on yourself,” said Magnus, because Alec still couldn't really sit up on his own and in the end, Alec gave up and just nodded, but a blush crept upon his lips. “Now, be a good boy and drink up,” said Magnus and grinned when he saw Alec's scowl, but the Shadowhunter didn't say anything and drank the water when Magnus held up the glass again. Magnus' grin grew as Alec emptied the glass; he was just so happy to have Alec back and he couldn't help himself really. “Good,” he said and then cast the empty glass away, gently cradling Alec's face with his other hand. “How do you feel?” asked Magnus softly and Alec shrugged.

 

“Tired, but okay,” said the younger one. “What happened to me?”

 

“Oh,” said Magnus and Alec could sense the disappointment in his voice. “You don't remember.”

 

“Remember what?” asked Alec, who was confused that he couldn't remember much of it. Honestly, he didn't even know what day or month it was. Did someone wipe out his memories? The last thing that he could clearly remember was the mission that he was on with Jace and Isabelle. He knew that some kind of a spell hit him, but then after that, his memories were blank. However, when he gave it another thought, he wasn't really sure if that was the case. There were some hazy memories present at the back of his head and if he would really try to remember, maybe-

 

“You were hurt in a mission a month ago,” said Magnus and Alec looked up. “Well, not exactly hurt. A demon cursed you and turned you into a child,” said the warlock. “For over a month, you lived as an 8 year old,” he then added and looked at Alec, trying to find any signs of Alec remembering the past month.

 

When Magnus said that, it was as if he turned on a switch inside of him and all of the memories came rushing back to him. The confusion, anger, fear that he felt when he was coming back from mission that day. Trapped in that small body made him feel useless, powerless. But, then he forgot; forgot who he really was. He placed a hand on top of his mouth and gasped, face turning red when the rest of the memories came; saying that he was a big boy, Magnus playing with him, sharing ice cream with the warlock, the bullying of Jace... scratch that, Jace deserved what he got. Alec couldn't recall all of the memories, but he could remember more than enough, the last memory being Magnus giving him the potion, smiling when he realised that Magnus was able to bring him back. However, he hid his face into his palms when he focused on all of those embarrassing memories and he knew that Magnus wasn't going to stop teasing him about it.

 

“Oh my God,” said Alec and Magnus grinned.

 

“You do remember, after all!” smirked Magnus and happily leaned back against the couch. He could see that Alec's blush was getting stronger and he couldn't really hold back anymore. Magnus placed his fingers under the other's chin and waggled his eyebrows. “What's with the blush, darling? I thought you said you were _a big boy_ ,” teased Magnus and Alec pulled back, but Magnus leaned forward again, pinching his cheeks. “You were an adorable kid, but,” he said. “I'm so happy that you're back. I missed you so much,” he then added, Alec's blush gone and he leaned over to Magnus, connecting their lips in a short, but sweet kiss.

 

“I know,” said Alec. “I'm glad that the potion worked properly,” he then added and Magnus only nodded.

 

“Yeah,” said Magnus and smiled. “I love you,” he then added.

 

“I love you too, Magnus,” whispered Alec and kissed his boyfriend again. Magnus’ heart warmed up when he felt Alec’s lips against his for the second time and he exhaled deeply as they kissed, realising just how much he missed that. It was Alec who broke the kiss when he looked down and realised that he wasn't wearing any pants. Not only that, but he was wearing Magnus' shirt and he frowned. “Why am I wearing your clothes?”

 

“Don't you remember?” asked Magnus and grinned. “You were playing to be me. It was adorable, you were running around the bedroom and chasing the demons around,” he said and Alec gave him a horrified look, memories of that kind of hazy, but he was thankful that he couldn't recall that properly. “You even did your make up like me,” added Magnus with a grin and Alec's face heated up again.

 

“I did… my own make up?” asked Alec in disbelief and almost told Magnus to stop joking. However, when Magnus gave him his pocket mirror, Alec went red in the face when he saw himself. His make up was a mess from all the crying he did before; but even before that, he must had looked terrible. There were three different colours on his eyelids and he honestly looked like a mess. “Oh my God,” stammered Alec and quickly tried to get rid of the make up, but ended up making even a bigger mess than it was before.

 

“Come on, leave it on,” said Magnus, but the smile remained on his face. “You were so adorable before. You always said that you wanted pretty and sparkly eyes like me,” he then added and Alec rolled his eyes.

 

“But this isn’t pretty… I look like a panda,” said Alec and gave Magnus an offended look when he started laughing.

 

“But a very fabulous one, darling.”

 

“You're never going to let me forget, right?” asked Alec and Magnus happily shook his head.

 

“Nope,” said Magnus happily and waggled his eyebrows. “About any of it. The past month gave me loads of material,” said Magnus and Alec groaned.

 

“You’re an idiot, Magnus,” said Alec as he felt blush creeping up the back of his neck and he tried to fight it, but in the end, he ended up looking away, pressing his lips together and Magnus was immediately in a better mood when he saw that his teasing was already working and he hadn’t even started properly.

 

“As a kid, you never called me that,” said Magnus and pouted. “You were fond of anything that I did and loved it when I praised you. Well, how couldn’t I… you were such a good _boy_ after all,” said the warlock and watched how Alec tried not to make a scene, but the blush on his cheeks said more than a thousand words. “And it seemed like that someone had a little crush on me,” he then added and Alec rolled his eyes, but in the end managed to make an eye contact with the older one.

 

“Of course I did,” said Alec, because he could somehow hazily remember that just hugging Magnus made his heart beat like crazy and then he smiled. “How could I not?” he whispered and looked up at the warlock, who was now wearing a genuine smile and leaned against him, his body still feeling too tired. “I’m sorry that I forgot about you, the memories we’ve shared,” he said and pressed his lips together. “I can’t even imagine how hard it must’ve been on you,” he then added and Magnus shrugged, grinning when he felt Alec’s head dropping on his shoulder.

 

“That part wasn’t really fun, yeah,” said Magnus and sighed. “But at the same time, it was still you,” he said. “I got to take care of a very precious and adorable kid this month and you made me learn a lot of things about myself,” said Magnus. “Maybe I’m cut out to be a father after all,” he said quietly and that was when Alec gasped and looked up, then straightened himself up and gave Magnus a look, as if he was trying to ask him about something.

 

“What are you trying to say?” whispered Alec.

 

Magnus chuckled when he saw Alec’s big eyes looking at him and for a second, he had a feeling as if Alec was a little boy again. “Well, taking care of you as a kid made me think about many things, one of them being expending our little family,” he said and smiled, Alec’s heart skipping a beat when he heard that. He had said it quite a lot of times that he wanted to be a father and even though they never had a proper talk about it, Alec thought that that was something that Magnus didn’t want. However, Alec had just realised that he was more than wrong and he was quite glad that he was proven that. “Somewhere in the future, we’ll get married and,” said Magnus, taking Alec’s hand into his own, linking their fingers together. “We could adopt. I’ll kind of miss hearing little feet running around my apartment.”

 

A bright smile spread across and he leaned back against the couch again as he felt himself getting tired again, but the smile remained on his face. He slowly closed his eyes as he started imagining the future as Magnus described it. Getting married, having children… all of that was everything that he wanted. And Magnus wanted the same. It was still far too, too soon to be talking about that now, but just the thought of it was enough to make Alec all giddy and happy inside. “A future like that… with you… is all I’ve ever wanted,” muttered Alec and Magnus grinned when he saw that Alec was in the process of falling asleep.

 

Magnus nodded and decided to change the topic of conversation; Alec was too tired to be thinking about serious things like this. “Feeling sleepy, darling?” asked Magnus and the Shadowhunter forced himself to open his eyes and he nodded. Alec’s eyes were closing on their own and that was exactly how little Alec was when he was too tired to stay awake anymore. Adorable. “Come on, let’s get you to bed now,” said Magnus and Alec groaned.

 

“No,” said Alec and yawned. “It’s not even night,” he then stated stubbornly. “I need to call my mom and the others to tell them I’m okay,” he said and yawned again, rubbing his tired eyes. “I owe Jace an apology,” he then added and groaned as more memories of him bullying the hell out of the blond one started coming up. “I was kind of an ass to him.”

 

“Well,” said Magnus and shrugged. “If you ask me, it’s good that you messed around with him for a little bit,” stated the warlock and grinned, remembering how miserable Jace looked; it still brought joy to his heart.

 

“True, but I went overboard,” said Alec and started searching for his phone.

 

“Look, you go rest,” said Magnus. “And I’ll tell them that you’re okay and invite them over. Until they come, you go rest. What do you say?”

 

“That seems fair,” said Alec, who was too exhausted to think straight and then frowned when Magnus got onto his legs and extended his arms out to him. “What in the world are you doing?” asked him the hunter.

 

“Come, hop on. I’ll carry you to bedroom,” said Magnus and Alec went red in the face.

 

“No! I can walk just fine and-”

 

“You didn’t seem to find it all the other days,” stated Magnus and grinned. “Come on, be a good boy and listen to me,” mused the warlock and Alec only groaned.

 

“Stop fucking around, Magnus,” said Alec, but then took Magnus’ hand when the other extended it out and got onto his legs with Magnus’ help. However, the other had different plans and when Alec was standing up, he quickly picked him up, bridal-style position and Alec scowled down at him, trying to free himself, but Magnus’ strong arms and magic kept him secured in place. “Hey, that’s not fair! You’re using magic,” accused him Alec. “Put me down!” demanded the hunter.

 

“Such bad words,” said Magnus and shook his head. “I think I’ll have to punish you,” said Magnus and Alec’s heart skipped a beat.  

 

“Magnus-” started Alec and then yelped when Magnus started walking with him in his arms and then the warlock started laughing softly when he saw the expression on Alec’s face. The way to the bedroom seemed very long for some reason and Alec tried not to look up at Magnus’ face, weight lifting off of his chest when he was placed down onto the bed. Without saying anything, he snuck in between the sheets and smiled when Magnus covered him with the rest of the bedcovers, tucking him in.

 

“See, it wasn’t so bad,” said Magnus and then sighed happily, kissing Alec’s forehead, before his lips went down to Alec’s and the hunter smiled into their kiss, chuckling when he felt Magnus’ fingers on his nape, travelling up to his hair and then gently hummed when Magnus tugged onto his hair. Alec’s little moan woke Magnus up and he quickly released him, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to hold back if he would take this any further. It had been so long since he had kissed his Alexander, his self-control paper thin. “Now, rest, darling,” said Magnus and Alec nodded.

 

“Okay,” said Alec and pulled the covers up to his chin. “Thank you.”

 

“No need to thank me,” said Magnus before he stepped out of the room and dialled Maryse’s number, letting the others know that Alec was back to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? I'd never hurt little Alec or Magnus in any way :P I'm not that evil, haha  
> I hope that you liked the chapter ^^


	8. Chapter 8

The one who was first over at Magnus' loft was no other than Jace, who barged in unannounced before Maryse came with the others. The blond one could sense something happening through their _parabatai_ bond and he could feel Alec more than ever, knowing that he was back to his usual self. He could feel his mature emotions, not those of a child and he couldn't be happier to have his brother back. Magnus wrinkled his nose when it was Jace who decided to come inside unannounced and just rolled his eyes. There went his plan of a peaceful evening in. Magnus told Maryse that Alec was exhausted and both she and Isabelle agreed to come over the next day, leaving Alec to take the time to rest.

 

Jace went into the living room, where Magnus was currently sipping a glass of martini. Magnus clenched his jaw and closed his eyes; during the past month, Alec gave Jace just exactly what he deserved. He hated it that he still didn't learn to at least knock before stepping inside. Partially it was Magnus' fault for not locking the door, but still. Where were the hunter's manners? Probably flushed down the drain together with his rational way of thinking. Before he could come any closer to Magnus, the warlock emptied the glass, because he knew that he needed it if he'd have to deal with the other.

 

“Magnus!” practically screamed Jace and started looking around. “Where's Alec? He's back, isn't he? I could feel the usual him through our bond,” he then explained and Magnus tried not to roll his eyes too much, slowly getting up onto his legs, walking to the younger one and tried to remain calm.

 

“Yes, the potion worked and he reverted to his usual self,” said Magnus and Jace almost started laughing.

 

“Can I go see him?”

 

“No,” said Magnus simply and raised an eyebrow when he saw how confused Jace looked.

 

“No?” asked Jace dumbfounded. “Why?”

 

“Oh, I don't know,” said Magnus sarcastically. “First you come here unannounced, barge into _my_ apartment without knocking. I mean, where are your manners? This needs to stop, because it's fucking annoying. Clary learned to knock before going inside and so should you,” said the warlock, who had it enough. He didn't have any more peace in his own place anymore. “I called Maryse and told her that Alec's back, we agreed on meeting him tomorrow, as he's too tired now because the potion took a huge toll on him,” said Magnus, his voice strained. “Need any more reasons for you to go home?”

 

As Magnus was talking, he kept walking towards Jace, who was just backing away, because to be honest, Magnus scared the crap out of him at that moment. He had never seen the warlock so pissed and when Magnus was finished, he was pressed against the wall and gulped, slowly nodding. “No, I understand,” whispered Jace and looked at the door. To reach it, he would have to go closer to Magnus and he didn't feel safe enough to do that. Magnus Bane was just able to make the self-proclaimed, bravest Shadowhunter out there, crumble and stutter in fear. “I just... can you...”

 

“What?” asked Magnus and smirked when he saw that Jace was actually trying to get away. He wasn't about to stop him, so he just stepped back, so that Jace could get the hell out of his apartment. When Jace was about to leave, someone called out his name and he stopped and looked around, his face brightening when he saw Alec standing there, supporting himself on the door frame of the living room.

 

Alec, who was asleep, woke up when he heard voices coming from the living room and he was up in the sitting position as soon as he heard that Jace was there. Before going there, he made sure to change his clothes and then went into the bathroom to take care of the mess around his eyes and dragged his tired body towards the living room. He saw that Jace was about to leave and because he was too weak to run after him, he just called out his name. “Jace, wait up,” said Alec once Jace stopped talking and Magnus looked at him, worry written all over his face.

 

“You shouldn't be up,” said the warlock. “You have to rest,” he then added and Alec only shrugged.

 

“I'll be fine,” said Alec with a small voice, looking over at his _parabatai_. “We need to talk, I owe you an apology,” he then said and Jace's smile grew wider when he saw that Alec was back to his usual self.

 

“Thank the Angels,” whispered Jace and didn't waste any more time. He was so happy to see his _parabatai_ that all common sense left him and he literally pounced on Alec when he was standing close enough to him, wrapping his arms around the older one and he squeezed him closer to himself in a tight, almost crushing hug. “You're really back. God, I've missed you.”

 

Alec only snickered when he felt Jace's arms going around him and even though he still felt pretty weak, he allowed himself to be pressed in a tight hug, supporting himself on Jace as the other one kept on holding him, not ready to let go. Alec was about to roll his eyes in annoyance, but then he could feel through their bond how much Jace had missed him. All of the blonde’s feelings came rushing over him; relief, happiness, excitement. Because of that, Alec just kept holding onto the other for a little longer, smiling when the hug got tighter and then looked over at Magnus, who just kept staring at Jace, not to impressed with the scene in front of his eyes. He had told the idiot that Alec was weak, so in his opinion, Jace was being way too rough with his boyfriend. But then again, Alec said nothing, so the warlock just kept quiet, but the glare didn't stop. Alec just chuckled when he saw the annoyance on Magnus' face and thus decided that it was the time for the hug to be over. To be honest, he felt quite awkward, so he just gently tapped Jace's shoulder, who just shook his head.

 

“There, there, Jace,” said Alec awkwardly ad gently patted Jace's head. “You can stop hugging me now, I get it, I've been missed,” tried the hunter again and when he was about to push the other away, the hug had gotten even tighter. “Can't breathe,” complained Alec and that was when Jace finally pulled back, Alec sighing in relief.

 

“God, am I happy to see you,” said Jace and shook his head. “The last month was hell, you were kind of an ass to me,” he then added and Magnus just snickered in the corner. From Jace's perspective, he quite enjoyed the last month. “I'm so happy that that brat is gone. And now that you're back, it'll be like old times again. Missions, training,” he then said, overjoyed again and hugged Alec's face with his palms, leaning up and the heap of the moment, he kissed Alec's forehead. The kiss was rough. And wet. Alec wrinkled his nose and quickly looked over to Magnus.

 

“Magnus, help me,” whispered Alec when Jace pulled him into a hug. Magnus didn't need to be told twice as he was standing next to them in the next second and pulled the back of Jace's shirt, pulling him away from Alec and narrowed his eyes.

 

“Okay, that's enough, Blondie,” said Magnus with a chuckle and then Alec started laughing when he saw the expression on Jace's face. The younger one didn't know what he had done wrong; sure he was maybe a bit too overjoyed, but could you really blame him? The past moth he had been dreaming of this happening and with the brat finally out of the picture, he couldn't really contain himself. Besides, he really had missed Alec. Being his _parabatai_ and not being able to be really with him made things difficult on Jace.

 

Alec then wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt and grinned when he saw Jace now sulking and pouting, sending daggers at Magnus. “I'm sorry for the past month,” said Alec and sighed, slowly making his way to the couch. “Sadly, I can remember most of it, and yes, I was an ass to you,” he said and scratched the back of his head. “Although, you did kind of deserve it.”

 

“What did I do?”

 

“In a way, that was a payback for always interrupting and barging in here unannounced and without knocking,” said Alec painfully slowly and Jace slowly realised that maybe it really wasn't the wisest idea to be always doing that. Somehow, he didn't even think twice about it; it kind of didn't even cross his mind and he frowned.

 

“Oh,” said Jace and pressed his lips together. “I see. Sorry, I'll try not to do that again. From today forward, I'll always-” started the blond hunter, but was stopped by Magnus, who cleared his throat and Jace gave him an annoyed look. “What?”

 

“From today?” asked Magnus and Jace flinched when he remembered what happened earlier.

 

“Starting from _tomorrow_ , I'll always call before coming here,” said Jace and Alec gave him a satisfied look. “Happy?” hissed Jace and looked up at Magnus, who had his arms folded on top of his chest.

 

“Yep,” said Magnus and Alec just chuckled when he saw that the two of them were still glaring at each other. He then leaned back against the couch and let out a small whimper of discomfort, Magnus sitting next to him in a blink of an eye, placing a hand on top of his forehead. “You need to go back to bed, you're still burning up,” whispered Magnus softly and sighed. “You've strained too much, Alexander,” he then added and Alec slowly nodded.

 

“Yeah, I don't feel so good,” whispered Alec.

 

Jace noticed that he suddenly became a third wheel and understood that as a cue for him to leave. He quickly stood up and looked over to the pair, who were still cuddled up together. “I'll go now,” said Jace and Alec nodded, giving him a weak smile. “Sorry for interrupting, I just really needed to see him,” he then added and Magnus just shrugged.

 

“Yeah, it's okay,” said the warlock.

 

“Well, I'll be on my way,” said the blond and looked at his brother. “Call me when you feel better, okay?” said Jace and when Alec promised him to give him a call, he was finally on his way out. When finally alone, Alec started laughing and Magnus just grinned.

 

“By the Angel,” said Alec. “I've never seen him like that. I must've really left him traumatised,” he then added and Magnus laughed along.

 

“Oh, it wasn't so bad,” said Magnus. “Imagine if the demon turned you into a duck,” said Magnus and Alec started laughing out loud. “Poor thing would never be able to recover,” he then added and the hunter just laughed harder when Magnus continued poking fun at Jace.

 

* * *

 

 

“Alec!” said Isabelle with joy in her voice when she saw the older version of her brother and literally threw herself around the hunter's neck. “It's so good to finally have you, brother,” said the girl happily and then messed with Alec's hair as she pulled back. “Though I must admit, I liked being your older sister... little Alec will be missed,” she then continued her little rambling. She leaned up to her, now, older brother and pinched his cheeks. “You were just so _cute,_ ” said Isabelle and started laughing when she saw that Alec rolled his eyes.

 

“I wasn't cute,” said Alec, defensive, to Isabelle, who finally decided to show up at Magnus' place. While Maryse, Clary and Jace went to see him earlier that day, Isabelle was busy with the date that she had with Simon, so she agreed to come and visit them later on that day. Alec glared at Magnus, who was just smirking and sighed. “What’s the smirk for?” asked Alec and Magnus just chuckled.

 

“Isabelle's right, you were the cutest as the little boy,” chimed Magnus in and Alec just looked away. Great, just great. Now that Izzy was over, Alec knew what was coming; poking fun at him seemed like the most enjoyable thing to do to the other two. Traitors, was Alec decided on calling them for the time being and he scrunched his nose when he realised how childish his thoughts were. So, the kid in him still wasn't fully out of his system, was he?

 

“Yes!” said Izzy, who was sitting next to the warlock and grinned. “Remember how we went to the playground in the park?” asked Isabelle and bit into her lower lip when she saw how embarrassed Alec looked. “You wouldn't let go off of my hand,” she said and smiled. “It was adorable,” she said and then her smile widened when she remembered another thing. “Or the time you asked me why your heart is beating funny when Magnus hugged you?”

 

“Izzy!” said Alec.

 

“He asked you that?” asked Magnus, who knew all about Alec's little crush on him, but still didn't think that the boy was asking other people about it. When Isabelle nodded, Magnus rubbed his palms together and gave Alec a little wink. “Isabelle, dear, you have to tell me more details about your conversation with little Alec,” said Magnus, teasing on purpose and Alec just groaned. “Especially if the topic of conversation was me,” he then added and Isabelle grinned, happy to share, because she had more than enough material.

 

“Oh that shouldn’t be too hard, since you were mostly all that he was talking about even as a child,” said Isabelle and Alec just sunk down on the couch and trying to pretend that he was invisible. Magnus seemed pleased with that and looked over at Alec, who was now just rolling his eyes and toying with the hem of his sweater, ignoring Magnus’ curious eyes on him. “It was all… Magnus this… and Magnus that,” she then added and giggled when she saw how miserable Alec looked. His eyes were begging her to stop, but Isabelle on the other hand, had a different plan, which involved Magnus getting to know all of the tiniest details.

 

“Really?” said Magnus and grinned as he scooted closer to Alec, placing a hand on top of his head. “Even as a kid you couldn’t escape my charms, could you?” asked the warlock and waggled his eyebrows. Alec groaned again and shrugged; why did it matter? He already told Magnus that he had a crush on him even as a little kid. Much to Alec’s misery, the older one went ahead and pinched one of his cheeks and Isabelle started laughing when Alec tried to get away from him. “Now, now, don’t be like that. You shouldn’t misbehave,” he then added and Alec then just started rubbing his aching cheek, mumbling something to himself, which Magnus couldn’t make out what it was.

 

“Really,” said Isabelle and chuckled. “What fascinated him the most was how you… sparkle,” said Isabelle and made a short pause, to think exactly what Alec was saying about Magnus. “According to him, everything about you sparkles. Not only your make up or the clothes, but you personality as well,” she then added softly and smiled, because in her opinion, that was a beautiful thing to say. If only Simon was so romantic and say something like that to her once in a while.

 

Magnus was caught off guard when he heard that, but the smile was still present on his face and he glanced over at Alec, who was now stubbornly looking back at him, though the blush on his face was still very present. “You said that about me?” whispered the warlock and Alec just shrugged, not knowing what the big deal was.

 

“I don’t know why you are making such a big deal about it,” said the hunter, but then a smile cracked his frowning face. “It’s the truth… you have a very sparkly personality,” he said and shrugged. “Haven’t I told you yet? You’re beautiful and-” started Alec, but then was stopped when he felt a pair of lips pressing against his own and Alec almost rolled his eyes again when he heard Isabelle giggling in the background. As Magnus pulled away, the bright smile remained on his face and Alec felt his heart warming up as he pressed his forehead against Magnus’.

 

“Aw, look at you two,” said Isabelle happily and sighed. “By the way, do you remember any of this, Alec?” asked Izzy and Alec slowly nodded, his sister’s smile growing wider. “Oh, what about that time when you asked me if you could marry Magnus when you grow up?” asked Isabelle bluntly and Alec looked at her, speechless.

 

“ _I_ asked that…. As a kid?”

 

“The answer is yes, angel,” whispered Magnus into the other’s ear and Alec just hid his face into his palms as Magnus and Isabelle started laughing in unison.

 

“On a more serious note, Alec,” said Isabelle. “What made me the happiest was to see you smile and laugh so much when you turned into a kid,” she said. “I know that being the Head of the Institute puts a lot stress on you and it’s rare to see you smile so much. You were so carefree and I’m happy you’re able to remember some parts of it,” said Alec’s sister. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt anyone if you’d let loose every now and then as a grown up as well. You should be more carefree. Try it and you’ll see, you’ll feel a lot better.”

 

“Yes, I liked that part as well,” said Alec and sighed happily and he rested his head against Magnus’ shoulder and smiled when he felt Magnus placing his head against his. “The feeling was so liberating. I was able to experience such freedom, which I haven’t felt in year,” said Alec with a serious tone of voice. “That part I will miss a lot,” he said and sighed, Magnus looking down at him and then placed a hand against his back, drawing uneven patterns against his back.

 

“If you let go off that self-control on which you’re clinging so much, you’d feel a lot better,” whispered Magnus and Alec nodded, because he knew that the warlock had a point. “Maybe you turning into a kid was a blessing, a way for you to learn how to be more spontaneous,” said Magnus, who was now only thinking out loud, but Alec slowly nodded and smiled.

 

“Maybe.”

 

The three of them continued talking more about little Alec, poking fun at him every now and then, but eventually Alec stopped complaining and he just laughed along. To be honest, it was kind of fun. That was until Isabelle received a call from the Institute about a demon attack in the middle of New York, which ruined all the fun that they had. “Shit, it looks like I’ll have to go,” said Isabelle and slowly got onto her legs. “There’s a demon attack,” she then said and Alec was on his legs immediately.

 

“Tell me where, I’ll go and help you,” said Alec, wanting to be useful.

 

“You’re gonna leave?” asked Magnus with a small voice and bowed his head down. “But I just got you back,” he said to himself and his smile dropped when Alec turned to Isabelle. It wasn’t a big deal, was what Magnus decided on. Alec was a Shadowhunter, always on duty. Of course he was needed on the mission. He was the best of the best. But still…

 

“Alec stay here,” whispered Isabelle to Alec.

 

“I can’t when the city is under attack,” stated Alec stubbornly and then frowned when Isabelle signed over to Magnus, who was now sitting on the couch alone, his head bowed down and was nervously playing with his thumbs in his lap. Alec’s heart fell when he saw his boyfriend and he pressed his lips together.

 

“Look at him, Alec. He’s miserable,” said Isabelle and sighed. “Stay with him, you’ll come along on another mission,” said Izzy. “He needs you more than the city, Alec. Last time you went on a mission, he literally lost you for a month and now he just got you back. You can’t do this to him,” said Isabelle, somehow angry and Alec had to nod, because the look on Magnus’ face killed him.

 

“You’re right,” whispered Alec and sighed. “Just be careful, okay?”

 

“When am I not careful?” asked Isabelle and chuckled.

 

“I’ve changed my mind, I’ll stay here with you,” said Alec as he turned around to Magnus, who was on his feet immediately and weight lifted off of his chest when he heard that. He really didn’t want Alec to leave; he was too worried to let him go anywhere. “They can handle it without me,” said the hunter. “Besides, I’m still recovering and I’ll need someone to look after me,” he then joked and Magnus hugged him.

 

“Worry not, I’m here and I’ll make sure to not get you out of my sight,” said the warlock happily and once Isabelle had gone, kissed Alec softly and looked at him. “Thank you for staying here with me,” he stated softly and Alec only shrugged. 

 

“I’d be a terrible boyfriend if I left you all alone now,” said Alec and grinned when he received another kiss from the older one. “Now then,” he said. “Pamper me,” said Alec and Magnus only chuckled and grabbed the collar of Alec’s shirt and kissed him, dragging him towards the bedroom. Alec let out a loud yelp when he was pressed against the bed and then smiled when Magnus climbed on top of him.

 

“If you’re a good boy and take your shirt off, I promise to pamper you till your heart’s desires,” said Magnus and grinned when Alec’s shirt was off in a blink of an eye. “Good,” said the warlock. “Now tell me, what I should do for you,” whispered Magnus and that evening Magnus found out many of Alec’s hidden and deep secrets and desires, making sure that he made every single one on that list come true.

 

That night they fell asleep embracing each other, not wanting to let go and after a whole month, Magnus finally had a peaceful sleep, with his Alexander by his side, enjoying his adorable little snores which he had missed more than anything. For now, everything was good and that was all that Magnus could wish for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we've reached the end of the fanfic ;)  
> This one was a lot of fun to write and I am so happy to see that so many people supported this fanfic ^^  
> I hope that you enjoyed the last chapter as well <3  
> For now, I'm signing off, but I'll be back with something new pretty soon probably. Until then, take care and have a nice day ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> Comments and opinions are well appreciated.


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